against the All Blacks, the ingredients of a founding match

The victory of the XV of France on Saturday against the All Blacks (30-29) at the end of an intense match whose scenario highlighted the qualities of the Blues but also their areas of progress, has everything to become a reference in view of the 2027 World Cup.

After a disappointing Tournament, coach Fabien Galthié and his men played big against New Zealand, the only giant of the southern hemisphere that the French will face this fall, even if Argentina expected on Friday should not be underestimated .

In a match of hunter ending hunted, the coin fell on the right side for France, for a simple point. But one point is also huge and France knows it well, a year after its quarter-final lost against the future South African world champions (29-28).

This defeat, “we don’t talk about it anymore” swept captain Antoine Dupont after the match on Saturday, while Galthié had previously assured that this four-week gathering in Marcoussis represented “an important moment for 2027”.

The hope is therefore that this match against New Zealand will have the same effects as the victory of 2021 (40-25) which changed the outlook on the French XV, and that it marks the emergence of a new group: only a third of the 2024 players were on the scoresheet in 2021.

Victory “is of this caliber” ensured the second row Mickaël Guillard, four selections in Blue.

The power of renewal

The new players “were almost our strength”explained Paul Boudehent, not selected in 2021, replacing in 2023 at the World Cup against these same All Blacks (27-13) and author of a great match punctuated by a try on Saturday. “We had a highly motivated group, who didn’t want to miss their chance. We wanted to show that we could bring something to the team”insisted the 3rd line.

Saturday’s match offers plenty of new benchmarks for the Blues. Many new players have held up to the shock, like the neo-cap Romain Buros at the back, some executives have assumed their status like Antoine Dupont or Thomas Ramos, imperial at the foot and author of two passes to bring in tries, Others undoubtedly lost points like Grégory Alldritt, who was released even before the hour mark.

The parallel with 2021 can notably be drawn from the mental strength mobilized by the Blues in the face of headwinds. Three years ago, it was the express return of the New Zealanders after the break (19-3 in fifteen minutes), before the Blues resumed their march forward.

In 2024, the break smiled on the Blues, who were able to plug the gaps in their conquest – touches, scrums, rucks. Trailing 14-3 (27th) and seeming doomed to be nothing more than stooges, this time it was the Blues who inflicted a 21-3 to change the course of the match in 20 minutes.

Impassable defense

The French defense, helped by New Zealand’s fatigue, then recovered, not taking any attempts in the second half and forming a line that was difficult to cross, like the last action where the Blues extinguished any possibility of feat by blocking the Blacks in their own 22 meters.

The French only had the ball 40% of the time during the game, tackled almost twice as many times as their opponents (208 vs 111), kicked much more than them and crossed half as many times the New Zealand defense line than the opposite (8 vs 4).

Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s try illustrates this perfectly, with New Zealand wearing down against the French curtain, ending up losing control of the ball. Thomas Ramos only has to hit a low kick to send «LBB» punish the Blacks in the race. Scalded, they then preferred to take the points on penalties rather than try again to pierce the blue curtain.

This defense had carried the Blues in their series of 14 consecutive victories between 2021 and 2023. And if Fabien Galthié has said several times that his desire was to produce more play from now on, the reassuring references remain.