‘TRY FROM THE END OF THE WORLD’
Les Bleus have scored some great tries over the years – but none more so than this...
IT IS the great French winger, and the team’s captain at the 1995 World Cup, Philippe Saint-Andre, who gave the score its moniker: l’essai du bout du monde.
Well, that’s not quite what he said in the immediate aftermath of France’s historic series triumph in New Zealand in 1994. Saint-Andre called it contre-attaque de la fin du monde (a counter-attack from the end of the world). “The try from the end of the world”, as it’s now known, sounds more succinct and sexier.
Saint-Andre revised it that way when he spoke to the Daily Mail in 2017 about the last time the All Blacks were defeated at Eden Park, on July 3, 1994 thanks to a move he started. Since then, New Zealand have gone unbeaten in 43 matches there. And to win that match, SaintAndre and France had to dig deep into their bag of magic.
France had won the first Test in Christchurch 22-8 and were thus chasing history at Eden Park, seeking to become just the fourth team to win a series in New Zealand.
France led for most of the game, the result of Matthew Cooper’s inability from the kicking tee – or sand pile, as it was then – as he missed four out of his nine attempts.
Still, New Zealand led 20-16 as the match reached the final five minutes. New Zealand flyhalf Stephen Bachop’s clearance kick wasn’t actually a bad one – it forced Saint-Andre to turn back – but the problem for the All Blacks was the chasing of that kick was lax. SaintAndre built up a head of steam and then the rest of his teammates charged right on through New Zealand.
It took 28 seconds from the time SaintAndre caught the ball running back into his own 22 until Jean-Luc Sadournay dotted down at “the other end of the world”. France won 23-20.
Has a better try been scored at international level? Some argue Gareth Edwards’ famous effort for the Barbarians against the All Blacks in 1973 is the best ever, but for all the majesty of that score, it wasn’t a true Test match and there certainly wasn’t as much at stake as there was for Sadourny’s effort.
France never quite touched those magical heights of 1994 in South Africa the following year. They’d started 1995 with a great deal expected of them given their exploits in New Zealand but finished third in the Five Nations, losing to Scotland in Paris along the way.
In the World Cup they never reached any great heights, needing a last-minute try in the final Group D match against the Scots at Loftus Versfeld to qualify atop the pool, and then two late tries against Ireland in the quarter-finals gave the scoreline a semblance of dominance the performance didn’t deserve.
Arguably, the semi-final defeat to the Springboks at Kings Park was their best display, and to this day the magnificent Benazzi believes the ball he was carrying in the mud that afternoon had touched the tryline in the 79th minute and five points should have been awarded to France by Derek Bevan – the same referee as in Auckland.
France travelled 80-odd metres to score one of rugby’s greatest tries, but for all the history it made, they’d likely give up just one of those metres to have seen Benazzi given an extra centimetre at Kings Park.