All Blacks v France: The good, the bad and the ugly

RNZ News

17 hours ago

All Blacks v France
Kick-off: 7:05pm Saturday 12 July
Sky Stadium, Wellington
Live blog updates on RNZ
Analysis - With about 20 minutes to go in Saturday night's test match, it's fair to say quite a few of the 30,000-strong crowd at Forsyth Barr Stadium were glad that France hadn't brought their A team. Or even their B team for that matter, as the result hung in the balance until the final couple of minutes that saw the
All Blacks prevail 31-27
.
This was a pretty unique test match, one where the opposition won enough respect to subdue the normally vociferous response to an All Black performance that didn't yield a one-sided hiding. France were brave, calculated and slick, but it's also fair to say the All Blacks certainly had their moments too.
Here's what else we learned:
Beauden Barrett.
Photo:
Peter Meecham / www.photosport.nz
Kicking a penalty and backing the defence and discipline to win the game was a real statement at the end. The All Blacks, who by then were being led by Ardie Savea, were comfortable enough to let France try and attack them for the last stages because by then the visitors had run out of ideas. The key was to not give away any cheap penalties and therefore an attacking lineout, which never even looked like happening.
The attacking shape, when it worked, was really nice. Will Jordan's first try was a lovely fold around with Ethan de Groot running a perfect front door line, while Tupou Vaa'i's effort was off a more broken bit of play that Damian McKenzie danced his way through, and Jordie Barrett's came off a very nice touch from his brother in the lead up.
Beauden Barrett was perfect off the tee, the first time in a while that an All Black kicker has achieved that feat. They weren't easy either, with three conversions and a penalty near the touchline. This is very heartening given how good McKenzie's kicking form was on last year's northern tour as well.
Rieko Ioane of New Zealand and Theo Attissogbe of France compete for the ball.
Photo:
Peter Meecham / www.photosport.nz
Sevu Reece's injury was so early on it may as well have meant the reshuffle it caused had been the starting team, but it also meant that the All Blacks suddenly had two out and out finishers on the wings instead of Reece's usual role as a trouble maker around the ruck. It clearly took them a while to adjust to this both on attack and defence, something that shouldn't be an issue when the two players in question are Jordan and Rieko Ioane.
France's kicking game was just simply better in the first half, with Nolan Le Garrec's pinpoint accuracy seeing the ball come down perfectly to contest. That is not going to change next weekend, so they had better improve that aspect.
Gabin Villiere's try was through a huge hole left by two players pinching in on a French block runner, while Cameron Woki's effort was through some softness on the edge of the ruck. Again, this is fixable but not a great look from some players far too experienced to be committing those lapses.
Ardie Savea discusses a try that was later disallowed with referee Nic Berry.
Photo:
Peter Meecham / www.photosport.nz
It said a lot that the biggest cheer of the night was for a witty young man in the crowd holding up a sign saying 'should've gone to Specsavers'. This was after what should have been Jordan's third try was rubbed out by the TMO for obstruction, and the third overall in the game. While all the calls were correct, we once again had to have the game grind to a halt while the officiating crew had a long, boring conversation with one another - and now we'll probably talk about it all week too.
Speaking of unhelpful discourse, the years' worth of trash talking the
quality of the French team
really came back to bite a few pundits. Yes, our knowledge of French rugby is low because we can't actually see it here but calling them 'disrespectful' and 'farcical' was a big call, and one that's likely to change rapidly in the build up to the now very intriguing second test in Wellington.