France V All Blacks

Match thread, since there isn't one!

ABs much the better team first half so far but not making it count to the full on the scoreboard. Referee letting the French slow down the entire game, particularly at scrum time where the refs are meant to be speeding things up!

France come straight out of the traps in the second half! Game on.

17 each

All Blacks with plenty possession but doing nothing in it. French defence and discipline holding strong. France jump on a loose ball to score again! 24-17 France

NZ still aren’t the team they used to be. Yes they beat Ireland last week but they just don’t seem to be clicking. Have some purple patches but struggling to play consistently

These obstruction calls are getting ridiculous now. French kick off and Cody Taylor stands still near the person who catches it - ABs penalised for obstruction! Teams are absolutely going to milk this if these types of calls continue to be given.

Ooft tight finish here! 30-29 France with 5 to go.

Yeah if you are stationary or running straight back (harder to call) then you shouldn’t be pinged. If they don’t tinker with that law then you’ll see a lot more high balls going up looking for the ref to give a penalty. What are players want to do? Run away from the incoming ball like it’s a falling bomb?

France hold on! 30-29

ABs played most of the rugby but spurned chance after chance, whether through poor control on the ball in contact or French defence, which was outstanding. Some dodgy calls from the ref throughout, not least the obstruction penalty which was a farce and ultimately decided the game.

France did superbly to hold on. NZ were all over them for the vast majority of the second half, but were largely restricted to three pointers.

Great advert for the game.

Curious that the referee apparently missed an instruction from the TMO to award a penalty, which would have put France four ahead. Wonder if anything else was missed?

I thought NZ's decision to hook their 9 after about 50 minutes was costly.

This ABs team is so much more slick under Robertson than Foster, perhaps they’re not quite there yet. Good win for France who I expect to remain a top 4 team for years to come.

Duty281 wrote:France did superbly to hold on. NZ were all over them for the vast majority of the second half, but were largely restricted to three pointers.

Great advert for the game.

Curious that the referee apparently missed an instruction from the TMO to award a penalty, which would have put France four ahead. Wonder if anything else was missed?

I thought NZ's decision to hook their 9 after about 50 minutes was costly.

Jordy Barrett was hit late and went off for an HIA looking very groggy. Classic French TV director didn't show a replay!

Duty281 wrote:France did superbly to hold on. NZ were all over them for the vast majority of the second half, but were largely restricted to three pointers.

Great advert for the game.

Curious that the referee apparently missed an instruction from the TMO to award a penalty, which would have put France four ahead. Wonder if anything else was missed?

I thought NZ's decision to hook their 9 after about 50 minutes was costly.

Does the referee have to take direction from the TMO? Or is it just they usually do? I really never thought about this before...

I thought that given the number of front line players missing: Baille, Atonio, Cros, Ntmack and Penaud France did remarkably well to drag a win out of the bag.
When Colombe was forced on after 10 minutes I thought there was no way he could effectively play 70 minutes, especially after being marmalised in some early scrums
However, he somehow recovered his composure, the French scrum got better as the game went on and he also won two turnovers. I expect he will need a long lie down in an oxygen tent to recover!

doctor_grey wrote:

Duty281 wrote:France did superbly to hold on. NZ were all over them for the vast majority of the second half, but were largely restricted to three pointers.

Great advert for the game.

Curious that the referee apparently missed an instruction from the TMO to award a penalty, which would have put France four ahead. Wonder if anything else was missed?

I thought NZ's decision to hook their 9 after about 50 minutes was costly.

Does the referee have to take direction from the TMO?  Or is it just they usually do?  I really never thought about this before...

I presume they do, because the TMO normally picks up something the referee has missed entirely, plus the TMO has the benefit of multiple angles and replays.

These stats are quite something. I thought NZ were largely on top, but I didn't realise they were this dominant...except on the scoreboard!

Duty281 wrote:

These stats are quite something. I thought NZ were largely on top, but I didn't realise they were this dominant...except on the scoreboard!

That's ridiculous! Tbh a lot of those carries were just one out passes and shuffling the ball from side to side for really long phases of play, which can happen a lot with Barrett at 10 - - McKenzie definitely seems to be the more creative attacking force.

Huge credit to the French defence too - that's some shift!

Side to side doesn’t count in metres made so those were all metres made towards the French line. NZ looked dominant but thier historical cutting edge still isn’t there. I’d go as far as to say they are very SA like in that they bludgeon away these days.