Opinion: France are robbing the public of an all-time great series against the All Blacks
All Blacks haka and an insert of France captain Antoine Dupont.
As the lights went down and the spotlight shone on the All Blacks during the Haka at the Stade de France last Saturday, one cannot help but feel that France were doing the rugby public a disservice.
The scenes before the first whistle were cinematic, the kind that would make Christopher Nolan blush. The anthems were emotional. Loud. Passionate.
And then the Haka… It stole the show. The All Blacks laid down the Kapa o Pango challenge – reserved for only the mightiest opponents and the biggest stages – with the bright light beaming down on them as the camera panned to arguably France’s greatest-ever player, Antoine Dupont, and then back to the All Blacks with the colours of the French flag now shining in the background.
The tone was set. This was going to be an almighty battle between two of rugby’s traditional powerhouses at one of the game’s grandest arenas. And the pre-match formalities was no false start as a breathless opening minute-and-a-half saw the hosts race through almost 10 phases jampacked with stunning attacking rugby, with a delicious cross-kick as the 82,000 in attendance belted out Allez, Allez Les Bleus before the first error occurred leading to the game’s point of difference: the scrum. Something that is nothing short of a gladiatorial battle between 16 men.
Scenes in Paris
The first five minutes of the match was essentially a staring contest and it was the visitors who blinked first as the always brilliant Tyrel Lomax slipped in the scrum to give sniper Thomas Ramos his first opportunity to draw blood and he did so with incredible ease. The response did not take long as All Blacks superstar Ardie Savea manufactured a first international try for newbie Peter Lakai, who hammered his way over the line. It was a frenetic start that not only lived up to the hype but seemingly never dropped the pace for the remaining 75 minutes as the game’s two great entertainers produced a masterful show, with the hosts muscling their way to a single-point victory that would usually result in a rousing encore roar.
However, those calls are currently falling on deaf ears as the French will arrive in Aotearoa next year with many of their best and brightest stars jetting off for vacations in the more luxurious destinations like Monaco instead of the battlegrounds of Eden Park or Forsyth Barr Stadium.
A disappointment akin to that of your favourite series being extended for another season but with an entirely new cast, with all the beloved characters replaced with cheap copycats.
This is of course because of the agreement the French Rugby Federation has with the LNR – the governing body of the Top 14 – which has seen head coach Fabien Galthie list his ‘Premium players – yes that’s really what they call them – who will not feature in the mid-year internationals and won’t tour with Les Bleus.
Perhaps a select few would make this acceptable and still make for a cracking series but alas it is not, it’s almost an entire matchday squad with 20 players currently carrying the ‘Premium’ tag. Of course captain fantastic and Les Bleus great Dupont is one of them with the others being: Reda Wardi, Cyril Baille, Peato Mauvaka, Julien Marchand, Uini Atonio, Thibaud Flament, Emmanuel Meafou, Romain Taofifenua, François Cros, Grégory Alldritt, Charles Ollivon, Anthony Jelonch, Nolann Le Garrec, Romain Ntamack, Matthieu Jalibert, Gaël Fickou, Yoram Moefana, Damian Penaud and Ramos.
That list could very well change before the flight to Auckland departs but not by much, which is nothing short of robbing the public of what could be one of the greatest Test series of the modern age, particularly when the awful Nations Championship – or whatever World Rugby decide to call it – is introduced to devalue the Rugby World Cup.
Fabien Galthie reveals plans for 20 ‘premium’ France players who will miss All Blacks tour
The 1994-95 Les Blues
It has yet to be confirmed how many Tests the two teams will battle it out in next July but Les Bleus will arrive in the land of the long white cloud with their joint-best ever winning run over the All Blacks, with their current hat-trick equalling that of the heroic 1994/95 team.
That side some 30 years ago was stacked with some of the all-time greats of French Rugby from the likes of Philippe Saint-André to Philippe Sella to Olivier Roumat to Alain Penaud and Emile Ntamack, with many of their sons now representing Les Bleus too. While their fathers etched their names in the history books, they will be denied the opportunity to do the same.
In fact, that team in 1994 not only became the first side to ever win a Test series over the All Blacks in New Zealand but were also the last to beat the men in black at the iconic Eden Park, with the unbeaten record now standing at an incredible 50 games.
The physical demands of modern professional rugby is mind-boggling and one can certainly understand the reasoning and need for players to rest, but it should not come at the detriment of significant Test fixtures. Professional athletes measure themselves in how they perform at the highest level and against the biggest odds and in Test rugby right now, there is still no tougher task than facing the All Blacks at their fortress, even with the Springboks’ stunning success and dominance in the past two World Cups.
A real shame
For a player like Dupont to boast a handful of minutes in international rugby in the Southern Hemisphere is frankly shambolic and by the looks of it, those minutes will only change come Rugby World Cup 2027 when he will have no choice but to head to south.
There is no doubt that the French have the greatest selection pool to pick their players as Galthie can choose from no less than 34 professional club teams in France, but that matters little at the highest level as the margins between the top 10 teams in the world are one percenters and the likes of Dupont, Alldritt, Ramos, Penaud, Ollivon and so on give you that edge.
All eyes will be glued to the British and Irish Lions series next year but the action in New Zealand could have provided a stunning appetiser with two of the game’s greatest entertainers warming up the fans before the celebration of one of rugby’s finest traditions.
Instead, we are more likely to get a repeat of the 2018 tour when an understrength, battered and bruised French team were simply swept aside by a far superior All Blacks outfit who comfortably claimed a 3-0 series whitewash.
The French really know how to put on a show but when it comes to rugby, they are only interested in serving the local viewers and not those abroad. One cannot help but think how the French public were to react if those 20 Premium players were rested this past weekend with those 82,000 fans paying their hard-earned Euros to see the best that French rugby has to offer only to be let down…
