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Internationals
Review
All Blacks run France ragged
Sunday, November 29
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New Zealand continued their unbeaten tour of the northern hemisphere with a comprehensive 39-12 win over France in Marseille on Saturday thanks to their commitment to a running style of rugby.
The All Blacks, having already seen off Wales (19-12), Italy (20-6) and England (19-6) without really hitting second gear, showed a welcome willingness to spurn the aerial ping-pong that has marked many games of late.
In return, their sure-handedness in the offload and ability to turn the slightest mistake by the French into an attacking opportunity made for some often breath-taking rugby that resulted in five tries.
The visitors overcame a nervous opening 10 minutes to score five-pointers through Sitiveni Sivivatu, Mils Muliaina, Jerome Kaino, Cory Jane and Conrad Smith, with the exceptional Dan Carter booting an additional 14 points.
France, who had sprung a 20-13 win over South Africa and posted a facile 43-5 victory over Samoa in their autumn internationals, responded with three Julien Dupuy penalties and a Francois Trinh-Duc drop-goal.
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, who was named IRB player of the year after the match, said: "It was an incredible Test match between France and New Zealand and we appreciate that."
Coach Marc Lievremont said France had to be dignified in defeat. "The All Blacks played very well. They put a lot of pressure on us in defence and scored points when they needed to," he said.
"We did manage to get back into game after their first try but we struggled after that. We were not able to convert our opportunities into points."
A tremendous shunt from the French pack at the first scrum on New Zealand ball saw the visiting front row buckle and pop under pressure, and Dupuy made no mistake from 35 metres after three minutes.
But the All Blacks came firing back, Yannick Jauzion hauling down Ma'a Nonu within striking distance of the French line but Sitivatu skipped through the threadbare defence after quick ball from the resulting ruck.
Carter converted and was then on hand to produce a potential try-saving tackle on Fabien Barcella after Jauzion had exploited a huge hole in midfield.
Dupuy kicked his second penalty on the quarter-hour mark after Julien Bonnaire had been obstructed at an attacking line-out to pull the score back to 7-6.
The Stade Francais scrum-half added to his tally when flanker Kaino released his binding from another scrum under enormous pressure.
France had a lucky break when Trinh-Duc's clearing kick from the restart was charged down by Jimmy Cowan, but the All Black scrum-half just failed to ground the ball.
But after a bad tactical choice by Dupuy, Cowan spread the ball wide in the New Zealand 22m area, the speeding Sivivatu turning provider by drawing Vincent Clerc and offloading to full-back Muliaina for an easy try.
Carter missed the conversion but grabbed a 29th minute penalty when Jauzion failed to roll away after tackling the dangerous-looking Nonu.
Tom Donnelly then spilled the ball over the line after Nonu gathered Carter's clever chip and fed a galloping Kieran Read.
The French front-five crumbled in the ensuing scrum, Kaino touching down amid a mass of bodies for a try Carter converted.
Trinh-Duc pulled back three points with a 35-metre drop-goal to leave the All Blacks 22-12 up at half-time.
Dupuy missed two pots at goal early in the second-half either side of a successful Carter effort and French heads went down.
Carter, who was part of Perpignan's Top 14-winning side last season, then enjoyed an impressive cameo for a full 10 minutes, giving a textbook demonstration on why many consider himself the world's best rugby player, mixing solid defence with deft handling touches and chips.
Jane scored the All Blacks' fourth try in the 61st minute, finding himself in space down the right flank and gathering his own chip over Traille to touch down. Carter converted.
Smith rubbed French noses in it when he skipped down the blindside unmolested for a try Carter also converted as tempers frayed between a well-beaten home side and an All Blacks team that now play the Barbarians in London next week.
Scorers:
France: Penalties - Dupuy (3); Drop-goal - Trinh-Duc
New Zealand: Try - Sivivatu, Muliaina, Kaino, Jane, Smith; Conversion -Carter (4); Penalties - Carter (2)
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i WILL start getting concerned if we still have only 1 world cup trophy after the 10th world cup, haha, heaven forbid!
Just like the Italians winning the Soccer World Cup with their hated brand of soccer - what an anti-climax!
But for me personally, the best games I can remember have been between the All Blacks and the Aussies. I think this is because these two teams place ALMOST as much importance on how you win as on the actual winning itself.
What's this nonsense about peaking? It's the first game we've really fired on, so now we win 1 game with ease, almost the perfect performance and we've peaked???? LMAO. It's called building and structure. We're not just building for the world cup but building for the teams future. Every now and then the All Blacks do this, usually things fall into place due to raw talent, when they don't it does take time (like any side) to get things right, albeit few and far between.
While you've been doing up and unders and playing basic winning rugby, we've been trying to create and build our1st 15 with reserves. We're finally getting things to fall into place, a run on 15. With a few more changes you will see this team only improve, so be very wary.
On the day running rugby was the winner. New Zealand is known for it's running rugby and natural talent, that's what our game is and always will be about and that makes me very proud. We're known as the Brazilians of rugby. We enjoy it and that shows when we score, no fist pumps or "f-yous" to the crowd, just BIG GRINS and jokes between players, that's because we just love the game and scoring tries.
Well done All Blacks, you proved why you're #1 (offcially and unoffically).
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