2023-09-08 23:40:24
For a long time it was stifling, padlocked, tight, tense. And then the audience at the Stade de France was finally able to explode with joy. Friday September 8, 2023, opening day of the Rugby World Cup, the France team successfully entered the tournament against New Zealand by winning (27-13). Methodically, without always being brilliant, she constructed a victory which ideally launches her into the competition she aims to win.
The weight of pressure
In front of 78,000 spectators, in the heat of the Dyonisian enclosure, for this 63rd France-New Zealand in history, these Blues in white initially seemed to carry the entire weight of the event on their shoulders. From the first touch, their defense line was breached and they made a mistake. From the second minute of the game, winger Mark Telea cooled the scene by scoring a try in the corner on a diagonal pass from fullback Beauden Barrett.
To make matters worse, hooker Julien Marchand, hit in the left thigh, left the field after twelve minutes. Deprived at the last moment of their captain, third row Sam Cane, injured, the All Blacks deployed the rugby that is their strength, made of repeated passes and sharp runs, to approach the goal on several occasions. tricolor goal. Without succeeding in achieving their domination against the muddled French.
But Captain Antoine Dupont’s men did not lose their footing or panic. Despite their collective approximations, the precision of Thomas Ramos’ kicks, who scored three out of four penalties in the first half, allowed them to reach the break with a bridge in advance (9-8). But we were far, then, from the offensive fireworks set off by France during the previous confrontation between the two nations, in November 2021, a shock concluded with a clear 40-25 in the same stadium.
The turning point of the second half
The same Mark Telea did it again less than three minutes after the start of the second act to restore the advantage to his team, with a try once again not converted (13-9). But they were no longer quite the same French people on the pitch. Finally, they managed to move forward, ball in hand. Damian Penaud came within a meter of scoring the 30th try of his international career. It was only a postponement. Two minutes later, in the 55th minute of the match, he flattened the ball behind the opponent’s line. With the transformation of Thomas Ramos, it was 16 to 13.
The same Thomas Ramos was then tackled in the air by Will Jordan, a foul which earned the New Zealand winger a yellow card, synonymous with ten minutes of exclusion. After the cool-off break, at 15 against 14, with 20 minutes still to play, the French continued to shake up their visitors. Thomas Ramos, again, scored two new penalties to bring the score to 19-13 in the 65th minute, then to 22-13 in the 73rd.
And there, finally, the French took a definitive advantage thanks to the agility of the new entrant, Melvyn Jaminet, who acrobatically recovered a ball in the air to dive into the goal, a try which he -even transformed (27-13). For their second match, Thursday September 14, the French will face a much less formidable opponent. They will play against Uruguay, this time at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Lille.
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