Heroic! The XV of France achieved a feat by signing a record success in front of New Zealand (40-25), triple world champion, its first against the All-Blacks since 2009, Saturday at the Stade de France at the end of the fall tour. The French, who remained on 14 consecutive defeats against the All-Blacks, scored four tries against three on the opposing side and had never beaten New Zealand with such a gap in the score. They will find these same New Zealanders in the opening match of the next World Cup (September 8 – October 28, 2023) organized in France.
3/3 for the Blues during the autumn tour
The Blues thus end their November series on a perfect balance sheet with three successes in as many matches after having already beaten Argentina (29-20) and Georgia (41-15). Thanks to four tries against three on the opposing side, the young French (25 years old, 18 caps on average) overcame a team they had not dominated since June 13, 2009 and a victory in Dunedin (27- 22) during a summer tour in the antipodes. And this with the widest gap in their history compared to fern selection!
To find traces of a tricolor victory in front of the New Zealanders in France, we had to go back much further, in 2000, when Bernard Laporte’s XV of France won at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille (42-33) . Coach Galthié was still the scrum half of the Blues. The men in black, winners of the World Cup in 1987, 2011 and 2015, remained on fourteen consecutive victories against the French.
But on Saturday evening, in front of a conquered audience who sang the Marseillaise a cappella during the hymns, they fell on a bone. The fall series ends on a flop for Sam Whitelock and his partners, already beaten last Saturday in Ireland (29-20). New Zealand’s back-to-back defeats is only the ninth time this has happened since 1995 and the advent of the professional era.
Three tries to nil in the first half
The Blues delivered a recital in the first period, concluded on three tries to zero, overflowing the Blacks guilty of hand faults and technical errors. Hooker Peato Mauvaka, for his second tenure in the absence of Julien Marchand, forfeited, took advantage of two balls carried carefully built by his clan to offer himself a double (3rd, 33rd), as against Georgia last Sunday at Bordeaux. In three autumn meetings, the Toulousain scored five tries.
Romain Ntamack, replaced at the opening, distinguished himself by scoring the second solo try after a fake pass followed by an acceleration which pierced a double curtain of five New Zealand defenders. At the break, the Blues led by eighteen points (24-6), an unprecedented gap in their favor in front of the Blacks. But they slowed down when they returned from the locker room and opened up intervals to upset New Zealanders.
A late-game interception that changed everything
Authors in turn of three tries in less than 15 minutes (Jordie Barrett, Rieko Ioane and Ardie Savea), the Kiwis came back within range (27-25). But an interception by winger Damian Penaud allowed the Blues to regain oxygen in the score (37-25). The Clermontois, top tricolor scorer this year, offered his seventh try in 2021 and the back Melvyn Jaminet continued his faultless in front of the poles (20 points in total).
The French back lines continued to put pressure on the New Zealand defenders to hold the score. And Jaminet finished the job on a new penalty, his fourth successful, to offer the Blues a record victory. The previous one, 22-8 in Cristchurch, dates back to 1994. Earlier in the day in Castres, the French women also dominated the New Zealanders (29-7) thus signing a second success in eight days against the world champions in title, already beaten in Pau (38-13), last Saturday. Magical !