Jean-Blaise Lespinasse’s last-gasp try put the finishing touches on France Under-20s’ first-ever Grand Slam with a hard-fought win over Ireland in the Under-20s Six Nations.
Baptiste Serin slotted a difficult penalty in the 75th minute to put Les Bleuets back in front after Ireland looked to have forged a remarkable fightback through Frankie Taggart’s try.
But in the end Serin’s boot, the No.9 claimed 13 points from the kicking tee, held them off before replacement Lespinasse went over in the final play.
It was the visitors who actually made the brighter start and deservedly took the lead when Conor McKeon bisected the uprights with a penalty.
Serin levelled things moments later with a penalty of his own and the France pack gradually began to turn the screw and dominate proceedings.
But they had to wait a while for their dominance to count but the rolling maul proved the key factor, hooker Romain Ruffenach losing his shirt in the melee but still keeping his head to dive over for the first try before the break.
Serin’s conversion was successful and the hosts took a 10-3 lead into the interval and history beckoned.
Another Serin penalty soon into the second period stretched it out to a ten-point lead but Ireland’s resilence meant they refused to buckle.
First centre Peter Robb slotted a penalty to reduce their arrears to 13-6 and then with a quarter of an hour remaining Ireland levelled matters.
Loosehead prop Peter Dooley made a fine break and offloaded superbly to the supporting Taggart who burst over, replacement fly-half Ross Byrne slotting the conversion to level matters.
Ross Byrne then missed a very kickable penalty that would have put the visitors in front and they were made to pay a few minutes later when Serin held his nerve to restore France’s lead.
And then in the final play the TMO ruled in favour of Fabien Pelous’s side and Lespinasse was awarded the try that gave France Under-20s their first tournament win since 2009.
