French entitled to feel they
Massive victories don’t come more hollow than the All Blacks’ romp over the French at Eden Park.
The tourists were robbed, pure and simple, and so was the paying public.
French captain Mathieu Bastareaud could legitimately report a crime, unlike in 2009 when he sent Wellington police on a false assault trail.
Anyone interested in proper sport could demand their money back.
What an absolute joke. I felt like screaming, the way All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith does.
The French weren’t brought down
by phantoms at Eden Park. It was a real live referee who did them in.
The night was turned into a waste of time if you see test matches as a legitimate contest, rather than an All Blacks roadshow.
Rookie test whistler Luke Pearce was travelling pretty well until the 51st minute, when the Brit lost the plot by twice failing to get video scrutiny, sending France to a disastrously heavy defeat.
You can marvel at the late game All Black magic as much as you like, and there was plenty of it. The All Blacks were absolutely sensational in the end.
But they’ll build a new stadium in Auckland before you see an international team slaughtered by yellow card foul-ups this bad.
The All Blacks could have, should have, been a man or even two down for 10 minutes instead of a man up,