Tries from Chloé Legoueix, Djenan Elisabeth Marie, Alixe Valence, Candice Barret, Alizée Durand, Anne-Mary Sock, Alana Tregouet, Alexia Le Floc’h and Madeleine Sutton racked up a mammoth attacking total as Les Bleuettes earned all five points.
It was a perfect start for the defending champions, who are in fine form ahead of their matches against Italy and Wales on Monday, 6th April.
Legoueix opened the scoring after a barrage of heavy French carries opened up space out wide. Les Bleuettes shifted the ball left, and their flanker smashed her way through two would-be tacklers to open the account.
Marie then stretched the French lead with a thunderous score of her own. The tighthead ran an accurate line to latch onto Baini Traore’s offload and surged through the Irish defensive line, before she shrugged off three defenders to dot down.
Ireland were well and truly on the back foot, only for disaster to strike for France when Tregouet saw yellow for a high tackle. But despite being down to 14, Les Bleuettes were undeterred and wrapped up an impressive first-half performance with a bit of backline brilliance.
Valence carried to the Irish line as France entered the opposition’s 22, neatly stepping past two before slipping past a third tackler to stretch her side's lead to 19-0 at half time.
In the second half, France well and truly began to flex their muscles, moving the ball up the pitch with ease throughout the 35 minutes.
Barret powered over just two minutes after the restart, before the French scored their first of many ‘Try of the Tournament’ contenders.
France received the restart and played wide straight away, before finding a gap in the Irish line and working their way up to halfway. Les Bleuettes then linked a magical set of offloads, sending Durand under the posts untouched.
France continued to demonstrate their flair with such a big lead. Sock and Sutton both dotted down on the end of crossfield kicks, while Tregouet and Le Floc’h finished off free-flowing moves that started well outside the opposition red zone.
The result means France are top of the table with England’s clash against Wales to come on day one.