France shrugged off the blow of an early red card to notch nine tries in a thumping win over struggling Ireland in Cork.

The five-time Grand Slam winners lost Annaelle Deshayes for a high tackle in the 21st minute but still had the bonus point wrapped up by half-time.

Scrum-half Pauline Bourdon scored two of France's five first-half tries, with Audrey Forlani, Gabrielle Vernier, Agathe Sochat, Cyrielle Banet, Charlotte Escudero and Pauline Bourdon (2) scoring France’s other touchdowns.

Dannah O'Brien's first-half penalty was the sole score for Ireland, who had Meabh Deely sin-binned late on for a cynical foul.

Ireland head coach Greg McWilliams said: “It’s hard. it is a big scoreline, if you look at the resilience, we wanted players to show that, and they did. I was happy the players worked. The key is to keep building now, three new caps again this week. They are a great group of players, they are learning, they are inexperienced. It takes time, it is a young squad. We own that and we are proud of the players.”

Ireland struggled to get a foothold in the game because of France's power, physicality and big-game experience as the visitors clinched their second straight victory of the tournament following their win in Italy last weekend.

Here were two teams at very different stages of their development with a smattering of rookie Irish players only at the start of their journey at international level.

Yet despite another heavy loss to follow last week's opening round 31-5 defeat by Wales, this was an improved display by Ireland and they will learn some valuable lessons.

They won early turnovers, slowed down French ball, had good maul defence and played with an aggression and intensity not seen in Cardiff seven days earlier.

Ireland fronted up and fought to the end with a couple of late forays into France's 22 in a game that a young, inexperienced side can learn from.