Ma¯ori go down to French Baabaas

CONTROVERSIAL yellow cards and repeat doses of argy-bargy is what many will remember in the aftermath of the NZ Ma¯oris’ illtempered 19-15 loss to the French Barbarians yesterday.

For NZ Ma¯ori coach Clayton McMillan the analysis should go much deeper. If done thoroughly it will peel back the lid on some more unpleasant truths, because the reality is the NZ Ma¯ori just didn’t fire enough shots to win this fixture, the second and final game of their short northern tour, in Bordeaux.

The Ma¯ori failed to adhere to the principles of controlling their tempers and limiting their errors against a confrontational side that niggled them at every opportunity.

The Ma¯ori conceded 15 penalties, missed 10 tackles – a number of them being simple oneon-one shots – made 11 handling errors and turned the ball over 18 times.