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29th May 2018

A French Newspaper Had A Bit Of A Dig At Ireland Today And It Was Nothing To Do With Football

James Fenton

Any Republic Of Ireland fans who tuned into our 2-0 defeat to France last night are probably wondering how they’ll ever get those 90 minutes back. In fairness to the lads, Martin O’Neill fielded an experimental team with three debutants but the whole performance was a bit of a damp squib to say the least. 

That’s not the only thing that was damp, says you, as at least some entertainment was provided towards the end when the pitch at the Stade De France began to resemble a lake. The rain bucketed down and some laughs were provided when players struggled to control the ball and fans had the craic in the stands. 

All well and good but for some reason, one French writer took something of a low blow at Ireland blaming us for the inclement weather. 

Clément Guillou, writing in Le Monde, noted that ‘L’Eire avait apporté sa météo mais pas grand-chose d’autre’, which those of you who haven’t forgotten your Leaving Cert French will know means ‘Ireland brought their weather but not much else.’

Ah here. Our weather might be shite but it’s our shite weather. Also, he’s picked a bad week to have a go with the sun practically splitting the stones outside. 

Guillou went on to add that ‘the Irish XI seemed like a distant cousin of the team that had made life hard for France for an hour at Euro 2016. They even lacked the traditional fighting spirit of Martin O’Neill teams.’ 

To be fair he had a bit of a point. At least RTÉ managed to get their own dig in on the French on our behalf in the midst of the action last night. 

If you feel like testing out your French, you can view Guillou’s full piece here. 

(header pic: RTÉ)

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