XV of France – New Zealand – “The fury of living”: the great story of the exploit of the Blues against the Blacks

I understood that TF1 was waiting to see what this France-New Zealand would do, before deciding whether the “Ahead”, as our grandmothers once called it, would attack historic omnipotence or not. from France Télévisions on the 6 Nations Tournament. I deduce, in the light of the prodigious prime time on Saturday evening, that the upcoming battle between the two major PAF channels over the old Tournament is likely to significantly increase the monetary value of the competition. Because on November 17, there were already five times more spectators in Saint-Denis and four times fewer CRS than during the France Israel event which preceded it two days earlier. The audience, if it did not reach the heights specific to a World Cup or an opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, was nevertheless pleasant, 8.5 million viewers – minus Jalibert and the like – having gathered on Saturday evening in front of their screens. Enough to calmly monetize the ad break preceding the Haka and the one, concomitant with the final whistle, brutally cutting off Thomas Lombard and Stefan Etcheverry, the entertainers* of the fall. Enough to trample, also, the runner-up of the evening (“Murders in Amiens”), which we do not know if it attracts so many people because it embodies a promise of blood, Picon beer or both…

“LBB”, the scent of a drug dog

In truth, we don't care where we will watch the next matches of the XV of France. We know, on the other hand, that we will continue to enjoy them for the aesthetic richness and the narrative chaos that they provide, most of the time. We loved everything about this France – New Zealand. La Marseillaise a cappella, pushed by these 80,000 fadas generally indifferent to the beggarly cold which surrounded the Saint-Denis plain on Saturday evening. The Kapa o Pango isolated by a play of light, a sublime preamble to which the Tricolores, out of respect for centuries-old tradition or out of noble fear of taking thirty, ultimately only opposed a school alignment. The fury and noise that only very big rugby matches, for what they contain in anguish, suspense and violence, can trigger in our noble kingdom…

Because there was ultimately everything that is most beautiful about this sport, in this single meeting: a war of direct conquest so long dominated by the Kiwis, the crazy races of Ardie Savea, the striking stamps of Manny Meafou, the restarts of Will Jordan, the generous and disorderly way in which Paul Boudehent shook the Tout Noirs to prove that he was at the level, the Gallic brothel which made Peato Mavaka a third row and Antoine Dupont an opener or these attempts responding to each other to each other, here flattened by Cameron Roigard, there marked by Louis Bielle-Biarrey. Him ? Faster than any other player on the international circuit, he seems to use above all, on the counterattacks which he improves no matter what, the insurmountable flair of a drug dog. We loved it, a thousand ports. We even got so far that we would have gladly asked the Springboks to put their title back on the line tomorrow. All the happiness of man being ultimately found in the imagination, we even furtively convinced ourselves that the XV of France would be world champion before tennis found a successor in Yannick Noah and cycling an heir in Bernard Hinault.

Galthié: “These players are special guys”

Once the trance has subsided, we are obviously not fooled by the reality of the facts. We are aware with you that this victory of a small point in the “Altradico” is a miracle and that these All Blacks, as bad in the kicking game as they were brilliant with the ball in their hands, alone lost the thread of this match that the French had so much difficulty in winning. We noted like you that Gabin Villière and Yoram Moefana tried to do what Caleb Clarke and Rieko Ioane so often did better than them. We finally noted how the vice-world champions had generally hovered over the data, beaten twice as many defenders as the Tricolores, broken twice as many tackles, made more passes than their opponents and naturally produced more play. So for his part, Fabien Galthié may say that everything “it doesn’t mean anything”that these are not “stats that matter at international level » and that “the most important thing is efficiency”we fear of ours that this New Zealand in reconstruction will be decidedly unplayable, the day when it understands thatthey have rugby not all balls are made to be played with…

And when even? We also like the oval ball for what it offers space for the almost sacrificial devotion that this XV of France, torn eight times in its lair, placed on Saturday evening in the immediate reconstruction of its defensive line, then making 208 tackles, sounding insubordination and shouting to the furious public at the Stade de France that they would not let go. “These players are special guys”said Galthié in the bowels of the Stade de France. “As French, we have an extra bit of soul”Paul Boudehent immediately joined him, emphatic as one can be on the evening of a big match. So, what? If the recent victory against the All Blacks obviously does not make the Blues the masters of the world, it at least has the merit of dispelling the few doubts born from the latest clashes between France and New Zealand. Not that the Galthié gang, undefeated against the Tour Noir since 2020, stole anything in the fall of 2021 or two years later, during the opening match of the World Cup. However, there was a scent of unfinished business exuding from these two events, both because the Kiwis, aware that they would see the quarter-finals whatever happened against the host nation, had trivialized the opener * of the World Cupthat because New Zealand looked very bad, the day they showed up in Saint-Denis in 2021, at the twilight of a three-month tour and with winger George Bridge or the pillar in their seats right Nepo Laulala, whose recent appearances in the Top 14 confirmed what we thought of them at the time, namely that they did not have the international level. These serious misunderstandings now dissipated, we will only regret that the XV of France, which will join New Zealand this summer without its best players, deprives these generous, intrepid and at times sublime All Blacks of the revenge which they would have undeniably deserved…

*The animators

** The opening