It is France-New Zealand time again. These words should conjure a frisson in any rugby connoisseur – and, by and large, they do. There are other more intense rivalries – the All Blacks against South Africa or Australia, for example, or England against, well, anyone – but for the promise of all that is holy in union, the brutality and the artistry, nothing quite stirs the imagination like Saturday night’s encounter in Paris.
All the more so given it is a quarter of a century since the greatest France-New Zealand episode of them all – some say the greatest match, full stop. On Halloween 1999, a suitably portentous date, these two met at Twickenham in the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup. What unfolded, it hardly requires a student of the game to recall, was the sort of nightmare only the French seem capable of inflicting on the All Blacks, who saw their 24-10 lead early in the second half shapeshift into a scarcely believable 43-31 defeat.
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These days, such a comeback might seem perfectly normal, so wild and thrilling are the dynamics of the modern game, but at the time France’s win defied everything we thought we knew about rugby – a portent of things to come, indeed. There was an unbridled swagger about France’s victory, as if a perfectly natural course of events, rather than a subversion of all rational thought. Eight years later, in that other knock-out game of legendary status between the two, the quarter-final of the 2007 World Cup in Cardiff, the French were probably even bigger underdogs, but they played as if they were, before realising by degrees that the game was there for the taking.
On both occasions, the All Blacks were the ones who swaggered into town, so clearly the best team in the world at the time, particularly in 2007. On both occasions, they finished the match shell-shocked, unable to comprehend how events had unravelled against them, a haunting from which the team often recognised as the best in history would emerge in the years after 2007.
But 1999 stands out because the All Blacks were simply outplayed by a team inspired. The occasion oozed charisma, nowhere more so than in the shape – the wildly differing shapes – of the two wingers, Jonah Lomu and Christophe Dominici, neither, tragically, with us any more.
The matches between France and New Zealand that have passed into legend tend to involve the French winning. This is because no one else can veer from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again quite like they do. Indeed, in 1999, France finished the last edition of the Five Nations with the wooden spoon, then lost 54-7 to those same All Blacks in June, in Wellington.
France have almost always been the underdogs. This is borne out by the sort of humiliating thrashings they have suffered at the hands of New Zealand, which one must feel tend to go unnoticed or the legend of the fixture might be less revered. In the 2015 World Cup, the All Blacks beat France 62-13 in the quarter-final, which must rank as about the most humiliating defeat by any credible rugby nation ever. But the size of that New Zealand victory is far from a blip. It is not even the biggest (2007’s 61-10 win – in Wellington, again; in June, again; in the buildup to a World Cup, again).
A new twist to the relish these days, though, is that New Zealand are no longer routinely the favourites. The bookies can barely split the teams on Saturday. New Zealand’s tour of the north so far reads two wins from two at the home of two teams in the world’s top five. Here they play a third team in that elite, but the last time they played France in Paris, just over a year ago, the home side won comfortably, in the opening match of the World Cup.
That event reached its high point in two quarter-finals at the same stadium, which have already passed into legend, so exhilarating was the rugby played, even if France and New Zealand were kept apart. Now the stage is set for the latest instalment between these two, who, whatever the crazy fluctuations in form, are capable of their respective hemispheres’ most sublime rugby. Therein lies the magic.
Tries incoming in Edinburgh
There should be no shortage of tries in Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon. The litmus test for the newly constituted executive board of World Rugby will be how many of them are scored by Portugal. Os Lobos are the lowest ranked of the “tier two” nations the big boys have deigned to grant entry to this year’s autumn internationals, a privilege they have earned from their impressive World Cup campaign last year, beating Fiji and drawing with Georgia, while losing with honour to Wales and Australia. A productive outing for Murrayfield visitors would suggest rugby’s mission to spread its gospel is coming along.
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As expected, after their strangely encouraging 32-15, four-tries-to-nil defeat to South Africa last week, Scotland have changed all but one of their team. They put this down to a six-day turnaround, but really they see this as a chance to test a few youngsters and give others some needed game time.
Tom Jordan is the only player to be retained from last weekend. He shone in the unfamiliar position of full-back, so this will be a chance for him to make it a little less so. Stafford McDowall will captain the side from the centre, and there are two new caps in the pack – Alex Samuel, the Glasgow lock, and Ben Muncaster, the bullocking Edinburgh flanker.
Portugal have not had such a great year since their World Cup heroics. They lost last weekend to USA in Coimbra, but they come loaded with plenty of professionals from French rugby, mainly in Pro D2, the second tier. The brightest star of their World Cup, Raffaele Storti, plays his rugby in the Top 14 with Stade Français and will be lining up on Portugal’s right wing. His duel with Darcy Graham, back from a head injury and a good bet to move into first place in Scotland’s try-scoring charts, and Arron Reed, the livewire from Sale, should set the tone for an entertaining match. Needless to say, Scotland can barely afford to lose it.
