New Zealand 37 France 17:NEW ZEALAND have become the Chill Blacks this month, to relieve not just the pressure of hosting a World Cup but to help them win a trophy they have not held for 24 years. Their hotel in Auckland is only a couple of blocks away from the area on the city's quay that has been turned into a fan zone; it is anything but a retreat.
The partying went on into not just the small hours of yesterday morning, but beyond daybreak. In the past, the All Blacks would have shut themselves away from the clamour and remained confined in their own tight space. Not this year. The secondrow Brad Thorn went for a stroll the day before what was an emphatic victory against the All Blacks’ World Cup nemesis, taking in the fan zone and walking into a busy restaurant with his wife, for lunch.
“The atmosphere is fantastic and you just want to soak it up, not hide away in your room and stay all serious,” said Thorn, who at 36 is the oldest player in the New Zealand squad. “I went out to take it all in and the people were wonderful. When you play you forget that you were once a kid who loved it when big matches came around.
“There is so much crap going on in the world in places like Syria and Libya that it is invigorating to walk the streets and take in happy supporters wearing the colours of so many different nations. It is how it should be. My wife and I sat in a restaurant and absorbed it all.”
If there was tension before the match, with New Zealand concerned that France would repeat their victories against the All Blacks in the 1999 and 2007 World Cups, their stress levels were negligible after 21 minutes: their side led 19-0, having survived an early onslaught from Les Bleus.
New Zealand are the only side never to have lost a pool match – not that it has done them much good since 1987. They tend to finish the group stage having had little more than training runs, leaving them poorly prepared for the knockout stage, but here, for once, they had to make meaningful tackles.
If France were lamentable in defence, New Zealand targeting the outhalf channel, where Morgan Parra was playing out of position, they were ebullient in attack, varying their lines of running and offloading with abandon. At times they dazzled, but their glare was never too strong for Conrad Smith.
The centre is not in the mould of muscle-bound midfielders who rely on brute strength and nothing else. He barely weighs more than the outhalf Dan Carter, but he allies raw power with technique, once picking up the considerably heavier France backrower Imanol Harinordoquy and driving him back 10 metres.
It was the image of the match. France had been stuck in reverse gear in the scrum, where Tony Woodcock rediscovered his form of old, and it was the capacity of the All Blacks to discombobulate Les Bleus by attacking perceived strengths that turned what had threatened to be a closely fought contest into a done deal before the interval.
France’s party line yesterday was that they would not think about the last eight, and the prospect of playing their own tournament nemesis, England, until they have played Tonga on Saturday. But do they really see the islanders as a traffic light rather than a speed bump? “We need to find a killer instinct,” said the scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili. “If we could have scored early on, who knows? We are disappointed, but we showed spirit and I would rather lose this game than in three weeks.”
It is the spirit of the World Cup that is lifting New Zealand. In 2003, they spent most of the tournament locked up in a remote part of Melbourne, only venturing out for training and matches.
They are lightening the load now by lightening up.
NEW ZEALAND: Dagg; Jane, Smith, Nonu, Kahui; Carter, Weepu; Woodcock, Mealamu, O Franks; Thorn, Whitelock; Kaino, McCaw, Thomson. Replacements: S Williams for Jane (34 mins), Ellis for Weepu, Hore for Mealamu, A Williams for Whitelock (all 55 mins), Slade for Kahui (61 mins), B Franks for O Franks (69 mins), Boric for Thomson (71 mins).
France: Traille; Clerc, Rougerie, Mermoz, Medard; Parra, Yachvili; Poux, Szarzewski, Ducalcon; Pape, Nallet; Dusautoir, Bonnaire, Picamoles. Replacements: Heymans for Traille, Barcella for Ducalcon,Harinordoquy for Picamoles (all 40 mins), Trinh-Duc for Parra (64 mins), Pierre for Pape (65 mins).
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland).
