Les Bleus once again proved too strong for the All Blacks on home soil, prevailing 30-29 in an exciting Test match at the Stade de France, setting the stage for a fascinating series in New Zealand next winter.
In front of a boisterous Paris crowd that had regained their voice following last year’s World Cup heartbreak, Scott Robertson’s All Blacks led 17–10 at halftime but let up two quick tries to begin the second half, putting them behind.
With four penalties in the last 30 minutes, replacement back Damian McKenzie kept the All Blacks in the game, but a 15-point haul from makeshift fly-half Thomas Ramos guaranteed Les Bleus their third consecutive victory over their fiercest Southern Hemisphere rivals.
The All Blacks’ five-match winning streak came to an end with the one-point loss, which also terminated their momentum-building second half of the Test season, which had begun on a poor start.
With a 9–13 win–loss record, Robertson’s All Blacks will now travel to Italy the following week.
“Very disappointed,” vice captain Ardie Savea remarked.
“We gave it our all to win the game, but we made careless mistakes that gave the French team the advantage. They’re a good team, and they punished us, and they did. I’m pretty gutted.
In the first half, we were fairly accurate, held the ball, had possession, and scored, so we felt in charge. We allowed them to enter the game in the second half. We were under pressure from them, and we were unable to cope. We simply got caught on our queue towards the end and were unable to continue.
“We didn’t do it tonight, so we’ll have to examine ourselves in the mirror to see where we could have put the nail in the coffin.”
Gregory Alldritt, a French star on the back row, praised the enthusiastic home audience for helping them win the second half.
He remarked, “What a fantastic victory tonight.” “The crowd provided us with a lot of energy to win this game, even though we didn’t play our best rugby.”
