All Blacks rely on first-half demolition to see off France after spirited comeback
France 18 New Zealand 38: Reigning champions ran in four tries in the first half but were only able to add one more after the break
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Your support makes all the difference.New Zealand beat France 38-18 for an 11th straight time, scoring four first-half tries and withstanding a strong comeback after the break on Saturday.
France has not beaten New Zealand at home since winning in Marseille in 2000, and anywhere since an away success in Dunedin in 2009.
Coach Guy Noves' experimental side, featuring four players on debut and an inventive half-back pairing, gave the All Blacks a bit of a fright in the second half until right winger Waisake Naholo grabbed his second try of the game in the final seconds.
“We lost our discipline a little and a result of that we allowed the momentum to shift and the French were good enough to put us under pressure,” New Zealand coach Steve Hansen said. “We gave away 11 penalties in the second half and some of them were pretty basic, like being offside.”
Noves was left stunned by a first-half showing he considered inept.
“Our first half wasn't up to the standards of an international team. We lost an enormous amount of balls, lacked aggression in the rucks and lost possession as soon as we won it in the lineout,” Noves said. “We needed an electroshock at halftime.”
New Zealand routed France 62-13 in the 2015 Rugby World Cup quarter-finals and another hammering looked odds-on after hooker Dane Coles, Naholo, centre Ryan Crotty and flanker Sam Cane scored tries — all converted by fly-half Beauden Barrett— to lead 31-5 at halftime.
“It would have been a disaster if we hadn't reacted at half-time,” Noves said.
France's only first-half riposte was a try from right winger Teddy Thomas. But after receiving a penalty try conceded by Sonny Bill Williams, who was sin-binned at the start of the second half, the French battled gamely back to 31-18 with half an hour left.
Thomas then had a try ruled out in the right corner, after a video review, as the momentum briefly threatened to turn under drizzly skies at Stade de France.
France showed its intent by meeting New Zealand's haka challenge, marching forward with arms linked before stopping in their tracks after a few metres.
Burly centre Mathieu Bastareaud, recalled for the first time since that World Cup humiliation two years ago, was in tears during the anthem, “La Marseillaise”, and made a thumping early tackle on Naholo. But it only briefly stemmed the wave of attacks about to land on the French defense.
The first breakthrough came in the ninth minute.
Scrum-half Aaron Smith peeled off the back of a scrum and fed Barrett, who gave Coles an easy 10th international try.
After left winger Rieko Ioane was held up just short, Smith recycled the ball quickly to Barrett, and he flipped a looping pass over to Naholo as if executing a move on the training ground. Barrett's conversion trickled over for 17-0 with less than 20 minutes gone.
The French hit back via Bastareaud, centre Geoffrey Doumayrou and full-back Nans Ducuing, who combined to send Thomas into the right corner. But the hard-won momentum was thrown away after tighthead prop Rabah Slimani was sin-binned near the end of the first half for repeated collapses.
The All Blacks took full advantage. Crotty latched onto Williams' grubber-kick behind the defense. Then, seconds before the interval, Cane crossed after a break by Ioane down the left.
Fly-half Anthony Belleau, one of the new French caps, landed a penalty just after the restart and the penalty try came moments later. Williams was sin-binned for infringing on left winger Yoann Huget as he chased a high kick into the left corner.
“He doesn't know the rules because he was playing (rugby) league,” Hansen said, wryly. “Good lesson for Sonny to catch it next time, not pat the ball out.”
After Belleau's second penalty kick punished another New Zealand error in the scrum, the All Blacks were up against it for a while.
But Naholo sprinted down the right for their fifth try as New Zealand avoided being blanked in the second half for the first time in six years.
AP
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