France waste good chance

France - 20 New Zealand - 20: By night France's space-age national stadium looks like something from a Steven Spielberg fantasy, an appropriate setting for this close encounter of a third kind. France were unable to follow the lead of England and Scotland and topple a Southern Hemisphere superpower in the same day, but the first draw in 38 meetings between these countries certainly had an otherworldly quality about it.

It ended with 80,000 spectators making about as much noise as if they were watching a game of boules in Bois de Boulogne and the All Blacks captain Taine Randell being handed a handsome trophy which he had the grace to look sheepish about.

These teams have produced some pretty extra-terrestrial meetings in recent years but, for quality, Paris 2002 only matches Auckland 1994, Toulouse 1995 and the real stonking vintage, London 1999, for its tangy after-taste. It was a fractious, bitter match which France should have won by a mile.

For the first time in their history the All Blacks had three players sent to the sin-bin, all in the first half, but after the match Randell and the New Zealand coach John Mitchell spoke through gritted teeth.

"If I was American and I was asked about the referee, I would claim the fifth amendment," said Randell.

Mitchell was asked about the Australian referee, Scott Young, but he refused to go into detail about the yellow cards brandished before Kees Meeuws, Christian Cullen and Mark Robinson.

The gist of the All Blacks' argument was that they were more sinned against than sinning, that Meeuws had been struck himself before hitting Jean-Jacques Crenca, that Cullen had been butted by the flanker Serge Betsen and that Robinson was also retaliating for another cheap shot from Betsen.

Nevertheless, Bernard Laporte's team destroyed the All Blacks at the lineout, ground them down in the scrums and had enough possession to have been out of sight before the game ended with a touch of French farce.

France had thrillingly recovered from a 10-point deficit with a Nicholas Brusque try, and been helped out by the video referee for the second successive week, before their floppy-haired outhalf Francois Gelez drew the scores level with a conversion and penalty.

But then Gelez was given a 40-metre penalty in front of the posts in the final minute: the evening breeze blew the ball off the tee, Gelez momentarily picked it up, knocked it on and the referee awarded an All Black scrum. It was no surprise when Gelez, nerves shot to pieces, missed another more difficult penalty with the last kick of the match.

France should have made better use of a heap of possession. As in Marseille a week earlier, their backs too often ran laterally and rather predictably into the teeth of the New Zealand defence, rather cutting the sort of angles that brought Brusque his try. There is plenty of va-va-voom about France, but it was still a pity not to see the wings Vincent Clerc and Cedric Heymans go through their gears.

Magne crashed over from a lineout for France's first try when the All Blacks had just lost Meeuws. The prop made amends with a try of his own when he came back on and Tana Umaga sliced through a static defence after the break.

FRANCE: Brusque; Clerc, Castaignede, Traille, Heymans; Gelez, Galthie (capt); Crenca, Ibanez, De Villiers, Pelous, Brouzet, Betsen, Magne, Harinordoquy.

NEW ZEALAND: Cullen; Howlett, Umaga, M Robinson, Lomu; Mehrtens, Lee; McDonnell, Hore, Meeuws, Williams, Mika, Randell (capt), Holah, Broomhall. Replacements: K Robinson for Mika (62 mins).

Referee: S Young (Australia).