New Zealand v France tests

Thought I'd set up a thread for the test series.

Test 1:

Date: Saturday, June 9
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
Kick-off: 19.35 (07.35 GMT, 09.35 France time)
Expected weather: There will be a temperature of around 9°C around kick-off time with a slight breeze. It will be clear with no rain expected.
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), John Lacey (Ireland)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)

All Blacks: 15. Jordie Barrett, 14. Ben Smith, 13. Anton Lienert-Brown, 12. Ryan Crotty, 11. Rieko Ioane, 10. Beauden Barrett, 9. Aaron Smith, 8. Luke Whitelock, 7. Sam Cane, 6. Liam Squire, 5. Scott Barrett, 4. Sam Whitelock (c), 3. Owen Franks, 2. Codie Taylor, 1. Joe Moody.

Reserves: 16. Nathan Harris, 17. Karl Tu'inukuafe, 18. Ofa Tu'ungafasi, 19. Vaea Fifita, 20. Ardie Savea, 21. TJ Perenara, 22. Damian McKenzie, 23. Ngani Laumape.


France: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud (captain), 12 Geoffrey Doumayrou, 11 Remy Grosso, 10 Anthony Belleau, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Fabien Sanconnie, 7 Kelian Gourdon, 6 Judicael Cancoriet, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Paul Gabrillagues, 3 Uini Atonio,2 Camille Chat, 1 Dany Priso.

Replacements: 16 Adrien Pelissie, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Bernard Le Roux, 20 Alexandre Lapandry, 21 Baptiste Serin, 22 Jules Plisson, 23 Gael Fickou.

Good start for France with a poor pass from Ben Smith setting up the French winger for the opening score.

Justin Marshall providing the comedy so far...."France are going to have to really front up in the scrum against this hugely powerful NZ 8".

5 mins later, the French have them on toast.

Great refereeing there, having none of that backchat

Text book AB try. Speed and skills.
Gonna be a long game for France.

France are arguably the better side so far, how long for though....Who knows?

NZ missing Retallick and Read, they don't look that good so far.

NZ attack so well from set piece ball, well defended from France.

And Dane Coles as well. Not the same team without these forwards.

France trying at least to be creative. Not effective but at least entertaining .

Pearce having a good game despite some serious whinging from Aaron Smith. NZ need this score before HT.

I have a feeling that Smith might see a yellow card soon, he is really annoying Pearce.

Enjoy the scrum Sgt_Pooly?

Where's Jalibert Whocares? Really impressed with him when I've seen him.

ebop wrote:Enjoy the scrum Sgt_Pooly?

After the French domination in the scrum 1st half that was some turnaround. Maybe you've finally found a real scrummager in that new LH? Not seen much of him but he's already better than the God awful Crockett.

That is never a yellow card... Proper play acting there.

Lol, the one scrum that France got a penalty for they were the ones that wheeled it after they failed to hook it properly.

eirebilly wrote:That is never a yellow card... Proper play acting there.

I must admit when I seen it live I thought yellow straight away. Not sure if even a pen when replayed.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:

eirebilly wrote:That is never a yellow card... Proper play acting there.

I must admit when I seen it live I thought yellow straight away. Not sure if even a pen when replayed.

Think it was a rather rushed decision myself. It was made to look bad at full speed by some play acting. Had that have gone upstairs might have been a penalty at best.

The incorrect yellow card has done it for the French.

Baille on LH for France, they'll be hoping to get their first half dominance back quickly.

I'm not sure where EBA and Poiret are?? They're fantastic looseheads and would take the average Franks to the cleaners.

NZ 5mins have changed the game....such a shame with the yellow, I think that's destroyed any chance of a French win.

Completely Billy, shame.

And that is only a penalty for Cane? That was a clear high shot...

Sam Cane has been poor, was expecting big things from him after all the hype on this board.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Where's Jalibert Whocares? Really impressed with him when I've seen him.

Probably still nursing his injury after doing his ACL in the 6N

Shame this Pearce guy couldn’t have refereed the Lions series instead we were stuck with those two French morons.

That's what the All Blacks can do to teams, 3 try's in 10mins and take the game right away.

2 very poor and favourable decisions for the All Blacks certainly helped their cause.

The French are completely gone now.

Very lazy French defending gifting an easy try.
To be fair France have been pants this 2H

Yeah just a penalty all right . Lack of consistency... shame ref is pretty good otherwise .

Beautiful offload from Taylor, nobody would catch McKenzie from there. Great try.

Oh dear god, that was a superb try for Laumape. McKenzie has been amazing since he came on, destroying the French defence.

This is getting embarrassing....

McKenzie has to start at 15, he's electric.

Questions have to be asked about this French teams mentality. Ok the yellow card was absolutely incorrect and Cane should have seen Yellow for his high hit but that should not have affected the French as much as it has. Very poor from them.

Agree with that . They really are not making much of an effort. Really embarrassing for them.

Looked like we might be in for a close game at half-time, but the yellow card seems to puncture the French entirely. Some great tries scored in the New Zealand avalanche. Being able to bring McKenzie in off the bench is just ridiculous.

But that's just classic French rugby. When the heads go down, they can fall apart. Would have loved to see how the game would have gone had the card decisions been given correctly.

Pearce was having a great game, but he really messed up badly there.

The All Blacks get to 50 points but when is a tackle a tackle? Savea was clearly tackled, knees on the ground.

The All Blacks have been very worthy of this win but boy have they got a lot from Pearce in the second half.

Don’t think France would have had a chance regardless if the YC. If their starting team were average, some of the subs were really poor. Compare that to NZ bench ...
intercept try after the only few phases of possession from France... nightmare.

It was like watching 2 different games. NZ pretty average in the first and French the better side. 2nd half NZ just blew them away with pace and power.

Men against boys
Would like to see 2H stats but am pretty France didn’t get much right on the basic stuff let alone giving away all the possession

While the end result was a bit disappointing France are definitely on the up. They seem to be much more at ease throwing it around.

But when they think they have lost they seem to give up.

Again a year out from the WC heading in the right direction

Poor second half from Pearce. Dreadful. The score would’ve been comfortable for NZ as France were always likely to gas, but the inconsistency issues he had with high shots and his refusal to check things that Justin Marshall could spot straight away did not help France at all.

The NZ impact from the bench is incredible.

Were France the best defensive team in the 6Ns?

Nope.

have to agree I thought he had a terrible game. I think he's relatively new at this level, so hopefully he'll be better for the experience. thought the card was harsh. However I think he had a terrible first half as well. I actually think this was worse than the second. there's a fair amount of focus on a couple of decisions that went against France. My issue was the shear quantity of poor calls he made. Many of these kept the French in the game. Having said that if Wayne Barnes can improve there's hope for this guy.

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Nope.

Are you sure?

ebop wrote:Were France the best defensive team in the 6Ns?

Probably not. However, I think they conceded 6 tries during the tournament. Less than any other side (Ireland 11, England 9, Wales 11, Scotland 15 and Italy 27). They didn't set the world alight with their attacking play from memory.

If you know, why are you asking?

France conceded the 3rd most points in the 6N behind Italy and Scotland.

The thing with France and French teams in general is they can beat anyone at home and get beat by anyone away from home.

I was extremley surprised with their 1st half showing today, less so with the 2nd half.

Do you mean surprised by the scoreline? Because to be fair both sides played an error-strewn first half. The ABs were toying with France by giving up 3pts upon 3pts in the first half. France were toast and they knew it and they couldn’t believe their luck when they went in at the half ahead. The captain said so in his aftermatch interview. This French team is the usual dross they send our way in June, and to be honest, I wished they didn’t bother. Would rather the ABs play a team like Georgia that would at least put up a fight.

I thought France struggled with their set piece and gave us a too much time on the ball. The AB's for all their early errors were able to control position, possession and the pace of the game. I thought the writing was on the wall at about the 30 minute mark, even with the ref. It was a matter of when the French would start to fall off the pace aerobically.

Can understand the yellow as it was seat belt but with force so by the laws probably right even if it looked soft in slow motion. He really messed up not telling the 3 players involved in head to heads to go off for hia s though. French did their job for once but cane was pulled after 5 min and the other guy whose name is escaping me stayed on without checks. Very poor all round.