‘Try from the end of the world’

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:

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

(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 – only the 1994 Springboks and the 2017 British & Irish Lions have managed draws at the largest sports venue in New Zealand.

And to win that match, SaintAndre and France had to dig deep into their bag of magic.

It’s worth pointing out that preceding that two-match series in New Zealand, the French had travelled to Canada and lost 18-12.

Also, that loss wasn’t one of those games where the French rested a bunch of players, and flew others on to New Zealand. Thirteen of the players who lost to Canada would beat New Zealand in New Zealand a month later. How French.

France had won the first Test in Christchurch 22-8 – a match which also featured a gem of a try by eighthman Philippe Benetton – 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 at goal.

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 Saint-Andre caught the ball running back into his own 22 until Jean-Luc Sadournay dotted down at “the other end of the world”.

In between there’d been a sweeping clearance at the base of a ruck from hooker Jean-Michel Gonzalez, a hip-swivelling dummy from Abdelatif Benazzi that befuddled the teenaged Jonah

Lomu playing in his second Test, an elegant burst from right wing Emile