France 38-17 Ireland: French in five-try win over brave Irish in Six Nations opener

France ran in five tries to open the Women's Six Nations with a solid 38-17 win over a much-improved Ireland.

The French led 17-3 at half-time in Le Mans but Ireland were resolute in defence and scored two late tries from Aoife Wafer and Aoife Dalton.

The hosts rarely hit top gear but still had a bonus point after 62 minutes.

France are away to Scotland next week while Ireland are at home to Italy and after this display, will be targeting a home win in Dublin on Easter Sunday.

France ran in nine tries in a 53-3 rout of Ireland in Cork last year, in a disappointing campaign for the Irish which ended with the Wooden Spoon.

The French may have expected a similarly one-sided game when Pauline Bourdon Sansus scored the opening try after just three minutes in Stade Marie-Marvingt.

The hosts developed early momentum off their maul and the scrum-half, the outstanding player of the first half, spun off the back of the maul and darted through the defence.

Lina Queyroi converted, but it soon became evident that the Ireland defence would be able to repel a lot of what the hosts had to offer in attack.

The cover tackles and scramble defence from Ireland was superb and they were able to put enough pressure on to force the French into handling errors.

The Irish players' confidence grew with each turnover and the visitors deservedly got some points on the board in the 14th minute when the French conceded a scrum penalty and fly-half Nicole Fowley landed a penalty.

With half an hour played, the score was still just 7-3 to France.

Neve Jones won a great turnover under the posts and Hannah O'Connor held Charlotte Escudero up over the line when the French were closing in on a second try.

Clean exits and an improved kicking game allowed Ireland to play in the right areas and they won good field position on occasions, Brittany Hogan with one memorable break.

French frustration grew with an Annaelle Deshayes knock-on from a metre out but they finally punched in a second try from Marine Menager after a lovely off-load back inside by Bourdon Sansus.

A conversion and subsequent penalty from Queyroi before half-time gave France a 17-3 interval lead, with Ireland making them work very hard for what they got.

However, the scoreline got away from Ireland a little either side of half-time.

France started bossing territory and possession in the second half and Ireland could only hold out for so long.

Playing with a penalty advantage, France pounded the Irish line before Madoussou Fall spotted a gap and dotted down under the posts.

Queyroi's easy conversion made it 24-3 to France after 47 minutes.

Exciting winger Kelly Arbey thought she had scored on her debut 10 minutes later but the try was disallowed for a forward pass in the build-up.

But France had the fourth try and bonus point wrapped up after 62 minutes when hooker Agathe Sochat scored off a textbook line-out.

Ireland scored their first try of the tournament through flanker Wafer in the 71st minute.

The visitors did not have many entries into the French 22 and came away with points after a tap and go and big carry.

Wafer's grounding was checked by the TMO but the try was no more than Ireland deserved.

France's replacement hooker Elisa Riffonneau crashed over for their fifth try but Ireland kept going and good chasing by Dalton gave Ireland an opportunistic score late on.