2023-10-15 03:03:38
During the quarter-final of the Rugby World Cup between Ireland and New Zealand, October 15, 2023, at the Stade de France (Seine-Saint-Denis). THEMBA HADEBE / AP
They had been buried, relegated to the rank of ordinary teams, deemed incapable of derailing an Ireland launched straight towards a first qualification in its history in the semi-final of a World Cup. They were said to be outdated, crumbly and deprived of their ruthless attacking game.
And yet: the All Blacks, by triumphing over the XV du Trèfle (28-24) at the end of one of the most memorable games in the history of the competition, showed, Friday October 14 at the Stade de France, that this team dressed in black would never really die.
In the days and weeks preceding this confrontation, we had the impression that history had already been written: Ireland, the world’s leading nation with seventeen victories in a row, sure of its qualities and its rugby , would get the better of New Zealand thanks to his oiled, relentless and thousand-times-rehearsed game. It was the culmination of sporting logic and the announced triumph of the Northern Hemisphere, almost a passing of the baton between two of the most dominant teams of the last fifteen years. Before the match, as a warning sign of this foregone conclusion, the deafening Irish chants coming from the stands of the Stade de France made the traditional New Zealand haka inaudible.
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Until the final minutes of the match, this story could still be written. The Irish had the ball under their arms and only four points behind. To qualify for the semi-final, all they had to do was reach the New Zealand line, over sixty meters away, and score a try.
In the 77th minute, the Clover XV therefore started its steamroller and its tireless attacks on the opposing line, those which usually dry out the lungs, burn the thighs and break down the defenses. For more than five minutes and the stratospheric number of thirty-seven phases of play, the green waves pushed the black line back, meter by meter.
Victory after a stunning sequence
During these five minutes, the two teams engaged in a fight that will be cited as an example for many years to come. It seemed as if the oxygen had deserted the Stade de France. The 78,000 spectators undoubtedly felt that the fate of the match hung by a thread, a trembling hand, an unsteady pass, a too strong tackle.
During more than 300 seconds of high-powered charges and desperate defense, not one team let up or committed a foul. Until the New Zealander Sam Whitelock, his eye sharpened by his 151 selections, plunged his big hands into the heart of yet another ruck to recover the ball, definitively shatter the Irish dream and send his team to the semi-final , Friday October 20 in the same Stade de France.
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