A hat trick of tries from As Ayguesvivoise XIII winger Amael Vilanove saw France women defeat Ireland 34-4 at Garda Westmanstown RFC in Dublin in searing sunshine in the first meeting of the nations.

The right-side was devastating for the visitors, centre Melissa Medina of RC Lescure Arthes XIII also claiming a brace on her debut. France made a blistering start to match the conditions, Vilanove over twice in as many minutes, Medina and Kaina Absi also crossing to build a 20-0 lead by the 23rd minute but, on the half hour, Galway Tribes’ winger Holly O’Dwyer went over out wide to put the hosts on the board.

Ireland women’s head coach, Matt Kennerson, said: “We played a world class team, we knew they would be good and struggled to keep up at times. The score probably didn’t reflect the game, we were more competitive than that, but France aren’t ranked fourth in the world for no reason.

“We have a few things to work on, and we had a number of debutants today, but there are some easy fixes and we’ll be working on those as we build towards the World Series in Toronto. We’d love to meet the French again in the 2026 Women’s Rugby League World Cup.”

It took until the hour mark for France to add to their lead, through Medina’s second, winger Perle Ramazeilles crossing on the left, Vilanove then completing her treble and claiming France’s seventh try, Lisa Diraison kicking three conversions.

“We are very happy, but we also congratulate the Irish team who played well, ran hard, never gave up and pushed us to keep our standards high,” said France women’s head coach, Romain Maillot. “The conditions were very hot and our players are in the off season, but they have been working on their conditioning and it was pleasing that we could see this in the game today.”