France stage one of greatest upsets

It beggared belief really. It's doubtful if there's ever been an upset quite like it, or certainly not one which was pulled off with such elan. The hum of sheer disbelief and excitement around Twickenham was palpable even long after the final whistle.

Funny how sport can overcome barriers and even unite a European cause in the midst of the latest Anglo-French war over beef. When the French conducted their post-match lap of honour everybody was duty-bound to do only one thing, even in the press box. Applaud. For on this day they reminded us all why we love 'em.

Cravats off then to a stunning 43-31 French upset in yesterday's second semi-final of the World Cup. This major exploit in rugby history was founded on an intense commitment, initially overzealous. They contested nearly every New Zealand ruck and lineout, tackled aggressively and knocked them down (save for Jonah Lomu), did their homework, pummelled the blind side and judiciously kicked the ball in behind the All Blacks.

They also had the faultless boot of Christophe Lamaison, who landed seven from seven and weighed in with two drop goals and a try for a personal haul of 28 points. In their hour of need, he was far more what they wanted than the more gifted Thomas Castaignede. Raphael Ibanez, for so long pilloried as their captain, led from the front, as did the mighty Abdelatif Benazzi. Fabien Galthie was well nigh immaculate in a controlled guiding performance, as was Lamaison save for just one wayward kick, and outside of the physically immense Richard Dourthe they had the rapier cutting edge of wingers Philippe Bernat-Salles and Christophe Dominici.

All are now heroes, as they stand within 80 minutes next Saturday in the Millennium Stadium of delivering France a remarkable World Cup double in football and rugby.

They scarcely deserved to be trailing by 24-10 five minutes into the second period, having gloriously taken the game to the All Blacks in the first half. The New Zealanders suffered from delusions of grandeur, completely lost the plot, tried to play the French at their own game and were soundly beaten, suffering the highest points total against them ever.

For certain no All Blacks team has ever been hit with 33 unanswered points in under half an hour, and this after the French had supposedly been in complete disarray, even by their standards, right up until and including the group stages when they laboured past Canada, Namibia and Fiji. It perhaps shows that Argentina are even better than we thought.

Their year of discontent had reached its nadir with their summer tour of the Southern Hemisphere, which had culminated in a record 54-7 loss to New Zealand. But their unpredictability is legendary, and yesterday they restored one's faith in rugby's unpredictability, after a World Cup in which everything had pretty much gone to form.

The last two meetings between the countries manufactured a 56-point turnaround. figure that out. Perhaps there was a fear motivating them from within, a la Buster Douglas stepping into the ring with Mike Tyson. Perhaps they are simply a big occasion team. Perhaps also the management saw the light and let the players have more of an input.

"We've been working for the last three months for this, and now here we are," explained their coach Jean-Claude Skrela. "I would like to thank the captain and all the players. As people often say, we are a funny team, but they really wanted to win today and so they met their own expectations of getting through to the final.

"Our defence was very good today, very aggressive. We had many opportunities, we knew how to take them on and we scored four tries. We just have to ignore a few basic mistakes but we had too many penalties against us in the first half."

Skrela seemed almost subdued, or matter of fact about the phenomenal feat in rugby history which he had just helped orchestrate. "The important thing is for rugby and for players to be happy."

At the post-match inquiry, the New Zealanders took their defeat squarely on the chin. "We were outplayed for 30 minutes" was the mantra given by John Hart, Jeff Wilson, Taine Randell and Jonah Lomu.

Amazingly, the All Blacks now meet the Springboks in the most high-powered and probably unwanted third place play-off ever. That it carries the negligible importance of being a qualifier for the next World Cup in Australia in 2003 makes it even more of a nuisance value.

Hart spoke almost wistfully of this game, much as Nick Mallett had done the day previously, though whether the players will be up for it is a moot point. As to his own future, Hart said: "Cardiff on Thursday. That's the first thing we're looking at, that's obviously our focus now."

The reality is that Hart's time is probably up as All Blacks coach, and that the almighty ones have just failed in a third successive World Cup semi-final or final. This is failure because anything less than outright victory for the inaugural winners is regarded as thus.

Who'd be an All Black today?