Anything can happen if France go off piste
BRENDAN GALLAGHER recalls the big upsets as France prepare for next week’s All Blacks clash
We sometimes get a bit sniffy about our friends just over the Channel and I’m not talking Brexit here. It pleases us to stereotype the French rugby team as inconsistent, underperforming, mercurial and profligate with their talent but here’s a little statistic to chew on as the November internationals get underway.
Over the decades France, with 12 victories, have beaten the All Blacks more times than all of the Home Unions combined, namely England (6), Wales (3), Ireland (1) and Scotland (0). And while not wishing to labour the point any more than necessary, all 12 of those France wins over New Zealand have come since Wales’ last win against the All Blacks in 1953. Ouch.
Which is why New Zealand, even during a period of apparent dominance over France as is the case right now, are always very wary of Les Bleus. The All Blacks have a healthy respect for France’s ability to go offpiste and produce the unexpected. In fact, students of the game over the years will have noticed that if New Zealand do have an Achilles heel it is precisely that.
During New Zealand’s longer tours of yesteryear France tended to come at the end by which time we in Britain had lost interest, convinced in any case that the main event was always the British leg. Not so. Generations of Kiwis have always seen France as the sterner test and certainly the more exciting rugby adventure.
France have twice inflicted serious World Cup pain on New Zealand; staged ridiculous comebacks; arrived Down Under with heavy duty packs only to play rugby from the gods; scored tries against New Zealand that rank with any in the game’s history and also resorted to some outright thuggery on occasions.
They have, it should also be added, like every other team in the world suffered any number of defeats against New Zealand, with some of the more recent reverses being horrendous in their severity – but unlike other teams there never seems to be any psychological hangover. New Zealand do not scare France and that always sets up an interesting dynamic.
Generally, New Zealand can comfortably deal with fit, efficient, well drilled, athletic and muscular teams playing to well-practised set patterns. They know what’s coming their way and can make plans accordingly.
No, what makes them jittery is rugby anarchy, the random and the unexpected. You can’t coach that and therefore there is no tried and tested antidote. The French need to remember that on Saturday at the Stade de France.
It took France just three attempts to gain their first win over New Zealand which will have Scots and indeed Irish fans green with envy, the memorable day being February 27, 1954, when a solitary try from France captain Jean Prat earned Les Bleus a 3-0 win at a windy Stade Colombes. No ‘beautiful rugby’ that day, just a very tough and pragmatic display from the French forwards against the well-drilled All Blacks who had been on tour for over four months.
Playing at centre that day for New Zealand was Brian Fitzpatrick, whose son Sean was also to suffer at the hands of the French some 40 years later. And, talking of father and sons in this game, when France claimed their next win – in 1973 at a spanking new Parc des Princes – centre Claude Dourthe scored France’s first try in their 13-6 win and helped create a second for Roland Bertranne. In due course Dourthe’s son, Richard, was also to play a prominent role in a French success over New Zealand in 1995.
The Seventies were a remarkable era for France. We always think of that decade, in European terms, as belonging to Wales, and with three Grand Slams it is difficult to counter that claim – but it was France who beat New Zealand not once, not twice, but on three occasions, something which proved beyond those star-studded Welsh teams.
France’s second win during this era was down to brutal forward power when their 1977 Grand Slam-winning team – that took the Five Nations without conceding a try – remustered on Armistice Day that year and gave it to New Zealand with both barrels.
Fielding a young side – their pack boasted just 18 caps between them -– New Zealand resisted remarkably well and there was much honour in their 18-13 defeat. And pain as well with Bryan Williams’ career coming to an end when he dislocated his hip and broke his femur making a brave tackle.
Two years later back at Eden Gardens, New Zealand were thirsting for revenge and were expecting to counter another mighty effort from the French pack only for Les Bleus, again captained by Jean-Pierre Rives, to call their bluff with a fluid off-the cuff Barbarians style performance. They outscored New Zealand four tries to two and should have finished off a couple of others and the All Blacks were hugely flattered by the 24-19 scoreline to France which suggested a close game.
It wasn’t. Jerome Gallion’s try was down to his harrying the opposition scrum-half and fly-half but those from Alain Caussade – a stunning talent who mysteriously faded to obscurity very quickly – Jean Luc Averous and Jean Luc Codorniou were all beautifully fashioned.
That was an undoubted high point
in French rugby but their next win over New Zealand in 1986 has gone down in infamy. Not only were the French pack at their brutal worst – New Zealand skipper Buck Shelford suffered a torn scrotum and lost various teeth in the 16-3 defeat – but it was alleged two years ago, in a book penned by the then France team doctor, that many off the French team, especially the pack, were high on amphetamines which had been provided for their use.
There then followed a fallow eight year period before France exploded gloriously into life again, indeed whisper it quietly but for a short period New Zealand became their bunnies. France had spluttered ineffectively through the 1994 Five Nations to finish third after two wins and two losses which certainly raised no alarm bells down in New Zealand. A year out from the 1995 World Cup, however, France coach Pierre Berbizier was beginning to crack the whip and demanded a 100 per cent turn out from his senior players for the summer tour and a better attitude to training.
Come the Test and France were absolutely outstanding, winning 22-8 at Christchurch and then closed out the series against Sean Fitzpatrick’s much improved All Blacks side with Jean Luc Sadourny scoring his famous try from ‘the end of the world’ which had been initiated by Philippe Saint-Andre close to his own posts.
Sadourny, who had also been a standout a year earlier when France beat South Africa at Ellis Park, never seems to get much of a mention these days but for a couple of seasons he was peerless. He was man of the match in that first Test in Dunedin and was again the star turn in 1995, scoring a brilliant individual try, when France made it three on the trot when Les Bleus won 22-15. A certain Jonah Lomu played in all three of these games and scarcely got a look in so dominant were the French.
Of course, the tide turned – New Zealand soon returned to winning ways – and France limped into the 1999 World Cup as Five Nations wooden spoonists. They just about stumbled through the pool stages before suddenly finding a bit of form against Argentina in the quarter-finals to set up a match against massive tournament favourites New Zealand at Twickenham.
We all know what happened next. France recovered from a 24-10 deficit with Lomu in full cry to rip New Zealand to shreds in the second half to win 43-31. What has never quite been apparent is how exactly that happened. Historically New Zealand are the great front-runners of Test rugby. If they get a flying start and build a big lead there’s normally only one result.
Perhaps it was just down to French brilliance in extremis with nothing to lose. But the passage of time gives you a little context. That 1999 semi-final was still only four years after France had won three games on the trot against the Kiwis. There were plenty of players in the French team who knew for certain that New Zealand were beatable and equally there were those in the New Zealand side who were still inclined to get a tad twitchy against France.
And then what happened a year later with New Zealand still working off their anger? France went and did it again beating the All Blacks in a 42-33 spectacular at the Stade Velodrome in Marseilles. No ambush and once in a lifetime pyrotechnics involved this time, just good old-fashioned high quality rugby
And finally, the last cluster of French wins – they do tend to come in close proximity – in 2007 and 2009. The former was a dramatic World Cup quarter-final but for all the excellent defensive work of the French and their two well-taken tries – one possibly after a forward pass – this match was all about the Kiwis being in denial.
They failed to accept that France, an inferior side, had somehow managed to stick with them and had a shot at winning the game. New Zealand just couldn’t absorb that and come those decisive moments had nobody on the pitch to take control of the situation and grind out the win even if it meant kicking a humble drop-goal.
Wayne Barnes unfairly copped the blame – Kiwis tending to forget there was probably a forward pass in their try as well – which leads nicely into what I consider one of France’s finest moments. The French win in Cardiff had been dismissed in New Zealand as an aberration, a fluke, the result of bad refereeing and just plain wrong. It would be different down at Carisbrook in Dunedin when the teams next met in June, 2009, when France travelled with an exhausted squad straight after the French championship play-offs.
Except it wasn’t. France again surprised all and sundry with a fluent, committed three-try, 27-22, performance that was much too good for New Zealand. It wasn’t their greatest performance but I doubt if there has ever been a more satisfying France win.
That was eight years ago. Since then nothing except ritual hammerings culminating in their humiliating 62-13 World Cup quarter-final defeat in 2007 in Cardiff. A French win this week seems almost unthinkable. Which is normally the cue for precisely the opposite.
“New Zealand failed to accept that an inferior side had managed to stick with them and had a shot of winning”