France have condemned the All Blacks to their first ever World Cup pool loss with a controlled performance in a white-hot atmosphere at the Stade de France this morning.
The 27-13 victory was the perfect World Cup start for Les Bleus in front of a crowd of more than 80,000 and it was also well deserved.
They matched the All Blacks two tries each but, crucially, displayed far greater accuracy – New Zealand’s discipline once again a bugbear as they conceded 12 penalties to four and lost wing Will Jordan to a yellow card midway through the second half.
Jordan’s sanction for taking out an opponent in the air and was unfortunate for him and the All Blacks but the No.14 had tread a fine line in terms of contesting high kicks throughout.
And while the All Blacks themselves got a perfect start to each half via tries for left wing Mark Telea and appeared the far fitter and more creative team in the first half, they fell away after the break and in the end it was a domination, a worrying descent given the way they were humiliated last time out against the Springboks.
Telea’s early try came via a perfect cross kick from Beauden Barrett following a scything break by Rieko Ioane off Anton Lienert-Brown’s short pass – a suggestion that France’s re-shuffled midfield could be vulnerable to such attacks.
And yet the All Blacks never managed to manipulate the French in the same way again.
They were very much in the game at 9-8 down at halftime and appeared to have much more to give but for whatever reason quickly ran out of ideas.
They were left to send high and wide kicks to Jordan or Telea and ended up giving the ball away and in Jordan’s case penalties too.
The result itself doesn’t matter necessarily – the All Blacks, should they beat Italy and get out of their pool, would have likely faced the Boks or Ireland in their quarter-final regardless. But it was another hint that games can quickly get away from them when they can’t dominate up front and give away too many penalties.
Both are trends for this team and may ultimately be their undoing in France.
They were of course hampered by the late withdrawal before the match of skipper Sam Cane which led to Dalton Papali’i starting at openside and Tupou Vaa’i at blindside flanker.
Neither of those players shone and Ian Foster’s team were weaker as a result. Brodie Retallick, unexpectedly on the bench and on the field for the final 12 minutes, will at least have some game time under his belt on his return from a knee injury.
Jordie Barrett's return to the midfield can't come fast enough for the All Blacks, who also missed prop Tyrel Lomax. On a positive note, Scott Barrett was again immense in the second row.
The French, with fullback Thomas Ramos a danger with his boot anywhere within 55m of the All Blacks’ line, didn’t need to extend themselves beyond keeping things tight.
In fact, replacement hooker Peato Mauvaka was probably their best player as skipper and dangerman Antoine Dupont was reasonably well handled.
And while they slipped off many tackles in the first half – many of them due to Telea’s elusiveness – their line speed and pressure forced the All Blacks into handling errors. Indeed, some were unforced, too.
Ethan de Groot, who had a difficult evening, coughed the ball up in a promising position, and hooker Codie Taylor did likewise near the end of the first half.
“We’ve got to regroup and keep going forward,” stand-in skipper Ardie Savea said afterwards.
“We looked dangerous when we had the ball but we let ourselves down around being patient and clinical with our skill set. We lost the battle tonight but we’ve still got the will to win.”
The All Blacks appeared poised to capitalise on their advantages in territory and possession in the second half but were on the back foot from the re-start and their only piece of real attacking quality came in the lead up to Telea’s second try.
A variation off a lineout had Savea chipping through brilliantly for Jordan, with Ioane’s long pass finding Telea in plenty of space on the left.
A classic Richie Mo’unga cover tackle on Damian Penaud allowed the All Blacks to maintain their lead but a further lack of discipline allowed the French to stay on attack and Penaud was soon over in the corner anyway.
At 16-13 up, the French had a tenuous control on the match and that was strengthened by Jordan’s sinbinning in the 58th minute.
Two more Ramos penalties extended their lead, with a try to replacement outside back Melvyn Jaminet perhaps giving the scoreboard a lopsided look.
Savea losing the ball near the line after a typically rambunctious run up the middle seemed to sum up the All Blacks’ performance.
It promised a lot but in the end it didn’t deliver.
France 27 (Damian Penaud, Melvyn Jaminet tries; Thomas Ramos 5 pens, con)
All Blacks 13 (Mark Telea 2 tries; Richie Mo’unga pen)
Halftime: 9-8
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