France 20 New Zealand 18:It's rare that you see elation on this scale and rarer still that you are as moved by the sheer bravery, impudence, concentration and daring of another country's success. Among the 71,000 in a rapt Cardiff on Saturday were a goodly chunk of Irish fans, many of whom were happy to indulge in the merited celebratory lap of honour by their, eh, fellow Europeans.
From the moment les Bleus memorably stood up to the haka right on the halfway line, in a choreographed sequence of blue, white and red T-shirts, to the conclusion of an utterly compelling and epic contest, and beyond, the nagging feeling persisted that this should have been the final.
Adding to the slightly surreal and cosmopolitan sense of occasion was the sound of The Fields of Athenry echoing around the stadium in the 15th minute, shortly after Dan Carter had opened the scoring. But enough about us.
Even walking up toward the ground an hour beforehand you got the impression there was something special in the air. While the anticipated black forests of Kiwi fans had arrived and congregated on cue for the beginning of their knockout march to the Holy Grail on October 20th in Paris, the resourceful French too - in their hour of need and with only a week's notice - had travelled by planes, trains and automobiles in remarkable numbers.
Berets off to Bernard Laporte and the French think tank for a simple game plan carried out virtually to the letter with immense focus and discipline.
In opting to keep the more potent All Blacks within reach with a strategy based largely on kicking the leather off the ball from anywhere in their own half and then tackling like men possessed, the key was then being in the game when springing something different from the bench and playing, and preying, on the Kiwis' potentially frayed nerves.
In this, it has to be said, they were helped by Wayne Barnes. Although the 28-year-old exuded authority, he certainly took a dislike to Richie McCaw in particular, and a 9-2 penalty count would be more in keeping with an under-15 schools match refereed by the father of one of the players.
Only twice did the All Blacks threaten to get away, once when the most dynamic and dangerous player on the pitch, Luke McAlister, exposed David Marty defensively with the sharpest of diagonal inside lines and traded passes with Jerry Collins for a try and later when Rodney So'oialo burrowed over for an 18-13 lead.
With Ali Williams eating into the Raphaël Ibañez throw, France were struggling with the tempo generated by the the All Blacks' superb ball presentation, clearing out or offloading in the tackle, and the mystery was why the Kiwis contributed to slowing the game down with their one-dimensional second-half tactics.
Even when Carter made the score 13-0, France could have been closer but for two missed penalties and a drop-goal, before their territorial game and lineout maul was rewarded with Lionel Beauxis penalties either side of half-time and the binning of McAlister for blocking.
Thereafter, the last half-hour was largely French brilliance. The All Blacks attempted to run down the clock with clever, close-in ball retention, but when Carter miscued an attempted drop-goal, an inventive short drop-out led to a stunning pitch-length try against 14 men by the outstanding Thierry Dusautoir.
Even when the close-in battering of the All Blacks forwards enabled So'oialo to restore the lead, Jean-Baptiste Ellisalde (again near flawless) was encouraging his players behind the goal-line, maintaining their focus.
By then he had inherited the captaincy, Dimitri Szarzewski having given the French a more dynamic defensive presence and Sebastien Chabal having upped the fury in the contact and breakdown areas in place of the old warhorses Ibañez and Fabien Pelous. Still, ultimately France could not have won without being true to their heritage - ie, without Frederic Michalak.
Few on the planet could have made the support run he did less than 40 seconds after his arrival. Traille hit the line and attacked the blindside from a scrum on halfway, and Michalak, getting his first touch, injected the pace and then had the awareness and vision to pirouette and feed his supporting Toulouse kindred spirit Yannick Jauzion for the try.
Their stunning opportunism was augmented by yet more Herculean defending, les Bleus making 178 out of 197 tackles to 36 out of 47 by the All Blacks.
Employing mostly a blitz defence and a second tackler to prevent the offload, they kept the All Blacks deep before their masterful use of the bench.
To a degree, the All Blacks were authors of their own downfall. The failure to establish a settled midfield and establish more leadership post-Tana Umaga was compounded by the omission of Aaron Mauger. The triple substitution in response to the Dusautoir try hinted at panic, and why they didn't have a strategy for an end-of-match drop-goal when twice deep in the French 22 was mind-boggling. It was symptomatic too of the lack of leadership once Carter went off.
That said, the All Blacks enjoyed few of the breaks. They lost an out-of-sorts Carter to a recurrence of his calf problem, which was compounded by the departure of Nick Evans. When Vincent Clerc's covering tackle denied Williams a try in the corner, it seemed Barnes was playing advantage to New Zealand for offside under the sticks and might have gone back there, while the Traille offload to Michalak was clearly forward.
Most of all, it was their bad luck to run into the French in this mood, again. It underlined how fear - properly channelled - can be as powerful a spur as anything.
It's partly out of the All Blacks' brilliance and heritage that France again scaled the heights of 1999. In this mood, the French were probably unbeatable, yet they probably would not have done it against anyone else.
Scoring sequence: 14 mins: Carter pen 0-3; 17: McAlister try, Carter con 0-10; 31: Carter pen 0-13; 40(+1): Beauxis pen 3-13 (half-time 3-13); 46: Beauxis pen 6-13; 57: Dusautoir try, Beauxis con 13-13; 63: So'oialo try 13-18; 69: Y Jauzion try, Elissalde con 20-18.
FRANCE: D Traille (Biarritz); V Clerc (Toulouse), D Marty (Perpignan), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), C Heymans (Toulouse); L Beauxis (Stade Français), J-B Elissalde (Toulouse); O Milloud (Bourgoin), R Ibañez (Wasps, capt), P de Villiers (Stade Français); F Pelous (Toulouse), J Thion (Biarritz); S Betsen (Biarritz), T Dusautoir (Toulouse), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin). Replacements: I Harinordoquy (Biarritz) for Betsen (5 mins), J-B Poux (Toulouse) for Milloud (41 mins), S Chabal (Sale) for Pelous (52 mins), D Szarzewski (Stade Français) for Ibañez (52 mins), F Michalak (Toulouse) for Beauxis (68 mins), C Dominici (Stade Français) for Heymans (69 mins).
NEW ZEALAND: L MacDonald (Crusaders); J Rokocoko (Blues), M Muliaina (Chiefs), L McAlister (Blues), S Sivivatu (Chiefs); D Carter (Crusaders), B Kelleher (Chiefs); T Woodcock (Blues), A Oliver (Highlanders), C Hayman (Highlanders); K Robinson (Chiefs), A Williams (Blues); J Collins (Hurricanes), R McCaw (Crusaders, capt), R So'oialo (Hurricanes). Replacements: C Jack (Crusaders) for Robinson (50 mins), N Evans (Hurricanes) for Carter, A Hore (Hurricanes) for Oliver, B Leonard (Chiefs) for Kelleher (all 56 mins), C Masoe (Hurricanes) for Collins (63 mins), I Toeava (Blues) for Evans (71 mins). Not used: N Tialata (Hurricanes).
Referee: W Barnes (England).
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