When you think of New Zealand, two main clichés come to mind: flocks of sheep in a postcard landscape and a rugby team dressed in black dominating world rugby. If goats are becoming increasingly rare on the island with the long white cloud – there are only five left per inhabitant, a figure at its lowest since the mid-19th centurye century – its rugby team, on the other hand, continues to occupy the top of the Ovalie.
The proof: for the fifth time in its history, on Saturday October 28 at the Stade de France, it will play a World Cup final. And she crossed without forcing the last hurdle separating her from this deadline, Friday October 20, by comfortably defeating Argentina in the semi-final (44 to 6).
The day before, the assistant coach of the Argentina team, Felipe Contepomi, stated an implacable truth of rugby: whoever your opponent is, the match always starts with a score of zero to zero. A way of saying that the Pumas had their chance against the New Zealand favorites and, at the very least, that they were going to start their match on the same starting line. The problem with the All Blacks, and especially since the start of the competition, is that this initial premise does not hold up very long. And the Argentinians had the bitter experience of this on Friday October 20 at the Stade de France: they were swept aside by the Pacific players without ever managing to compete.
Formidably effective All Blacks
If it was they who opened the scoring after a nice sequence of play in the first moments of the match, they only led the score for six short minutes. The New Zealanders then showed their surgical realism, scoring seven tries, and muzzled the South Americans. Every time the men in black approached the Argentinian goal line, they hit the mark. “Against New Zealand, the slightest mistake is fatal. They are so efficient… They turn all our mistakes into points” lamented Argentina’s Australian coach, Michael Cheika, after the match.
Among the offensive arrows of the men in black, winger Will Jordan is undoubtedly the sharpest: by scoring three tries, he brought his total in the competition to eight goals, thus doubling Frenchman Damian Penaud (six tries). If the New Zealander returns behind the opposing line in the final, he will be the sole holder of the record for the number of tries scored at a World Cup, overtaking South African Bryan Habana and his compatriots Julian Savea and Jonah Lomu.
You have 51.67% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.