Ibanez brushes off Geordan Murphy's tackle to score

"I feel great joy and pride over the performance of our players and although we were weak in some moments of the game, nothing got past us," he said.

"We could have led by more at half-time and went off the boil a bit in the second half but no one gave up.

"With good aggression and solid defence we managed to stay in the game."

Highlights: Ireland 17-20 France

Interview: France coach Bernard Laporte

"We missed two penalties and two try-scoring opportunities and then had a drop goal off the crossbar that could have put us in front.

"Then they had a penalty but we scored a try from the kick-off.

"It's very encouraging, especially in a difficult context given that they haven't beaten us since 2003 and it was the first match in this stadium," added the French coach.