All Blacks humble France to wrap up three-match series
Early red card to Fall takes the wind out of visitors’ sails
An early red card to France fullback Ben Fall helped the All Blacks seal a 26-13 victory in the second Test at Wellington Regional Stadium yesterday and wrap up the three-match series with a game to spare.
Fall, who arrived late in New Zealand due to the Top 14 final and missed the 52-11 first test loss, was sent off by Australian referee Angus Gardner in the 12th minute for taking out All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett in the air.
Barrett landed on his head and, after checking the incident with television match official George Ayoub, Gardner said he had “no choice” but to issue the red card. Prior to the red card, the visitors had dominated the opening exchanges, with flyhalf Anthony Belleau and the loose forward trio of Kevin Gourdon, Kelian Galletier and Mathieu Babillot punching holes in the All Blacks’ defence.
One of Galletier’s penetrating runs created space for Geoffrey Doumayrou to cross the line only for television replays to show he had dropped the ball while trying to score.
Sloppy start
Morgan Parra gave France the lead with an 11th minute penalty then the game effectively ended after Fall was sent off while chasing a high kick from the restart.
The world champions struggled to take control of the game with poor individual execution and sloppy team work in the face of a galvanised French side.
The All Blacks’ managed to score tries to prop Joe Moody, wing Ben Smith and two to fullback Jordie Barrett, whose first five-pointer only came from a sweeping counter-attack in the final minute of the first spell to give them a 21-6 lead.
Damian McKenzie, who had replaced Beauden Barrett after he failed the head injury assessment, finally sparked the game back into life when he put the younger Barrett in for his second try.
Italy completed a nail-biting 25-22 away win over Japan to tie their two-Test series against the 2019 World Cup hosts.
The Italians attacked with real purpose in Kobe after being humbled 34-17 by the Brave Blossoms last weekend, but needed two clutch penalties from fly-half Tommaso Allan to repel a furious late Japan fightback.