Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP
modified to
10:26 a.m., September 7, 2023
Eden Park in Auckland, 61,500 spectators boiling, awaiting only the triumph of their All Blacks, in the final of this World Cup disputed in New Zealand. It’s hard to imagine a better context for a great moment in sport and rugby. For the Blues, miraculous finalist of this 2011 World Cup, it is a mountain to climb. An elephantine challenge that they will come close to meeting. By losing 8-7, the teammates of Thierry Dusautoir, elected man of the match, achieved a major feat. The Blues have never been so close to a first global coronation.
However, according to New Zealand observers, suspense was not supposed to be at the heart of this duel. The Blacks were to triumph without firing a shot and lift a second Webb-Ellis trophy, 24 years after that of 1987 gleaned against… the XV of France. A feeling that the French observers were not far from sharing. In France, French skin was not cheap, because this 2011 World Cup was far from being a sinecure for the selection flanked by the rooster and even the finest connoisseurs of the oval would have had all the trouble in the world to imagine this XV of France in the costume of the magnificent loser.
Icy atmosphere, champion pride
Severely beaten by these same Blacks a few weeks earlier in the group stage (37-17), defeated to everyone’s surprise by the Tonga Islands (12-19), the Blues could have taken the door in the first round and thus imitated those football a year earlier in South Africa. Stuttered rugby on the green rectangle and this heavy internal atmosphere seemed to drive this French XV straight into the wall.
The frosty relations that certain players had with the coach, Marc Lièvremont, were an open secret. To the point of giving rise to a theory – always refuted by the ex-coach – according to which the Blues had entered into self-management, freeing themselves from the coach’s instructions. But these Blues will take great pleasure in thwarting the predictions. Successive winners of England then Wales, here are the Blues in the final of a World Cup which was nevertheless taking on the appearance of a resounding fiasco.
The V of victory
A remarkable journey which will not be enough to bring down the temperature within the group, Marc Lièvrement not hesitating to describe his players as “dirty kids” after their nighttime outing intended to celebrate their qualification for the final. But whatever. These Blues have a story to write. And they won’t even wait for the start of this final to scratch the first lines. Because in 50 years, we will talk again about this famous V for victory, formed by the French before the New Zealand haka even began.
The Blues advance towards their opponents in full haka
Photo credit: HANNAH PETERS / GETTY IMAGES ASIAPAC / Getty Images via AFP
And what about these few determined steps towards these Blacks in full warrior representation. The black machine has been warned: this XV of France is not an expiatory victim. The match will be the perfect illustration of this. These Blues, all dressed in white, crunched to the fullest in this final and manhandled the All Blacks, visibly destabilized by the titanic pressure which weighs on their shoulders. Initiatives are white, mastery is white, commitment and intensity too.
And the bad gestures are clearly New Zealand, but will benefit from regrettable leniency on the part of South African referee Craig Joubert. Scrum-half Morgan Parra, injured after a punch from Richie McCaw, can attest to this. However, it was the locals who took the lead at the break thanks to a nice touchline combination concluded by a try from Tony Woodcock (5-0). And this despite the clumsiness of Piri Weepu against the poles (0/3).
Except for one penalty
Returning from the locker room, after a penalty scored by Stephen Donald (8-0), Lièvrement’s men finally saw their pugnacity rewarded and a poor play at the foot of Weepu resulted in a try at the foot of the post by Thierry Dusautoir, taking advantage of A remarkable work by the mover Aurélien Rougerie. White returns to one point, but the score, unfortunately, will no longer change. François Trinh-Duc, although excellent since his entry into play in place of Parra, misses the penalty which would have allowed the French to take control. A cruel outcome for the Blues who will have caused the men in black to waver as rarely in the temple of rugby.
The dark years of French rugby will follow and this anecdotal 2015 World Cup, ending with a scathing correction against the Blacks (62-13). But the trough of the wave today seems far away and the XV of France version 2023, with its golden generation, has regained a place of choice among the strongholds of the international oval. Facing New Zealand on September 8, at the opening of this World Cup, the Blues will have a message to convey, a favorite status to assume. In a French stadium filled with 80,000 spectators, everything will come together for a great sporting moment. Like at Eden Park, 12 years ago.