Ireland left it late but managed to keep their hopes alive at an U20 Six Nations Championship, after a 17-16 win over France this evening.

The French held firm throughout and punished Ireland from the tee, but a late try managed to give the visitors a huge win.

Fly half Louis Foursans was deadly from the tee for France, but a try from hooker Victor Montgaillard made sure to keep them ahead from early on in the opening half.

Ireland were in hard luck early on as they had a try overruled and were then on the back foot. James McCormick managed to cross in the opening half for a try, before Ben Brownlee crossed in injury time for the second, a huge kick by Charlie Tector completing the late comeback win.

The hosts managed to put up an early score, after some ill discipline from the Irish, resulted in a close range penalty after four minutes, fly half Foursans making no mistakes landing the kick between the posts.

The men in green looked to have replied well to the early set back, as Jack Boyle got over for a try after a driving maul, however the TMO ruled the score out due to illegal play in the build up from a lineout.

Against the run of play it was Le Blues who got the first try of the night, off their own lineout it was Montgaillard who collected at the back and darted over to score, Foursans giving them a 10-0 lead with the conversion on 28 minutes.

Ireland responded well and managed to cross for their opening try after 32 minutes, this time without fault as hooker McCormick squeezed his way over the French line, as the visitors looked to have been held up just shy of the line, Tector reducing the deficit to 10-7 with the conversion, the scoreline read the same as we headed for the break.

The French started well early in the second half, straight from the restart they looked to have an opportunity at a try, Foursans with a cross field kick to Jefferson Joseph but the wide man could not connect with the kick in the end.

The fly half however was not finished with the run of play, the play brought back for a penalty which the French kicker made no mistake with landing between the posts, to make it 13-7. Tector responded with a penalty of his own 10 minutes later, to make it a three-point game. 

Just as Ireland looked to have got a foot back in the tie, they were guilty of giving away another penalty this time for an offside, fullback Max Auriac kicking the long range effort to cancel out the Tector penalty.

Just as it looked like the French had picked up the points, Ireland were handed a lifeline late on as Samuel M’Foudi was shown to the sin bin as the French held Ireland shirt illegally.

After running the phases looking for the line, the ball was offloaded out to Brownlee who powered his way over the line to score into injury time, the spotlight fell upon Tector who faced his most difficult kick of the night, the pressure on his shoulders against a hostile crowd he held his bottle to land the crucial conversion for a one point winning margin.