New Zealand – XV from France – “In the dark”: the story of the last test, still lost by the Blues

There was something unreal in this last stop. However. Similarly, like an appointment that we should never have accepted but to which we still go, out of habit or pride. For example, In Hamilton. In addition. However, the frame of this third match was therefore played almost in secret, at Waikato Stadium and in a country which, for days, already spoke only rugby championship, springboks and fluctuations in wool. For example, There. However. Therefore, two stands clashed lazily, like two old ladies ignored politely, while below, the new zealand – xv france new vibrant hearts piled up in the earth, on these popular, new zealand – xv france rustic weighs like the fairs of yesteryear. Consequently, Barely twenty-five thousand souls: a breath, a whisper worldwide.

Faced with the blacks, we had already lost twice. Nevertheless, We knew it, of course. For example, But in New Zealand as under the noble heaven of Gaul. Similarly. Furthermore, we got up a little earlier, we had put on a clean shirt, a new jersey and, together without being, we all convinced ourselves that something could happen. Furthermore, It was perhaps that, the strangest: this way of still believing it. However, To think that it is enough for a well -called sentence. Furthermore, with a single look so that things finally turn in our favor. For example, Before the match. Similarly. Furthermore, three days before the keel, the Blues had therefore tried new zealand – xv france new the carpet, imposing a narration in a world that no longer responded to their rules. For example, new zealand – xv france Face cameras. Nevertheless. Fabien Garthié had submitted the idea that, on these lands at the end of the world, the table of laws definitely does not apply in the same way according to the jersey we wear: “We need to be arbitrated like the French team, not like a little nation …” Here. For example. the mustache of the Lot simply recycled the idea that the whole world is against us because our wine is better, our richer literature and our historically stronger melee. Similarly. Because you have to understand what was playing in the minds of a coach who felt his group wick away. Meanwhile, 19,000 kilometers from the fold and after four weeks of fighting. Meanwhile. It was no longer just a question of rugby, axes new zealand – xv france new of doubtful thrusts and equivocal entrances to the penetrating mauls. Therefore, It was a question of taking care of invisible injuries. Consequently. new zealand – xv france of holding the sons of a collective rossé eight days earlier and now on the verge of implosion; To make him believe, in short, that the game was not over. Thus, Galthié thought he had everything planned, or at least what could still be. But we never completely master the real, comrades. And even less when it comes to rugby …

New zealand – xv france new

New zealand – xv france

Kirifi. the poison opposite

Not that Gaël Fickou and his teammates were docile on Saturday evening. For an hour, they even gave everything. Exharted by ten months from a ruthless season. the bodies hit by the shocks, the Blues have stood, standing, with them an almost irrational rage. Two hundred and ninety-seven new zealand – xv france new tackles. A record under the Garthie era. Alexandre Fischer. a Greek bust carved in a muscular room in the Auvergne mountains, made twenty-one alone and in one half. Twenty-one refusal to give new zealand – xv france in. Twenty-one bites on black flesh. But all well considered. these figures also said something else: because. in this rugby, where we only respond, defend, repel, it is obvious that the ball belongs to the other. And the other. in this freezing evening, it was this dark tide, this wave always started again, obstinate, regular, inhuman in its constancy. The Blues, back to their line, therefore seemed to fight not against fifteen men but against a fatality. They were big in pain, yes. But never really masters of their destiny.

Ardie Savea. the king opposite. would say after the meeting: “The French struck us in the face, on this first half; they are new zealand – xv france new tall, strong and very strong on the ground. I draw my hat.” However. the All Blacks had to raise the voice of an octave for the Tricolores to see the ball of. the match. And in this new zealand – xv france game. Kirifi, the child of New Plymouth, was probably the pitfall too much for France. Small. stocky. the exhaust pipe near the lawn and compact like a TNT load, it is called from the Plessis because its paternal was a fan of the Grand Morne. And at each ruck, Kirifi was rififi. He scratched, harassed, dismantled. He arose, outstretched arm, crampons anchored in Hamilton’s damp earth, as if he held his only reason for existing. It was simple: since Sam Cane, the blacks no longer had this profile in store. This low profile. This rare profile.

New zealand – xv france new

New zealand – xv france

Fickou: “We new zealand – xv france new will replay them. the All Blacks”

So, we don’t really know when everything changed on Saturday evening. No key minute, no tragic gong. Just this impression, diffuse then brutal, that the Blues died with small lights. And then, despite the overall vagueness, some lightnings also remained in new zealand – xv france memory. Flashes. Uppercuts. Some images: that of Pilar Georges Bower. out of his box like a demon. mistreating the tricolor right axis in general and Demba Bamba in particular; That of Damian McKenzie, sneaking between men like a fish out of a net; That of Will Jordan, 42 trials in 44 games, grilling Théo Attissogbe in pure speed; That of Jordie Barrett, above all, posing his big paw on the left cheek of Romain “Tao”, for a memorable refute and which ends up burying what was still hope …

What makes it even more incongruous, here is that new zealand – xv france new the night before, none of this was planned. Jordan had to sit on the bench. As for Barrett, he was not even expected on the match sheet. And then, fate has scratched Rieko Ioane’s hand. A balafre. Nothing. An almost elegant injury. But this drop of absurdity overflowed the cup: Jordan left new zealand – xv france the shadows for the light. Jordie went up on the bench as we go up to the front and the rest was a lesson. But then? Should we necessarily burn everything? Forget that this tour was also an opportunity to confirm Attissogbe and Guillard, to reveal Fischer, Montagne and Brennan? During the southern night. Gaël Fickou thus concluded the tenth consecutive defeat of the XV of France in New Zealand: “It is only. part given. We will cross them again, the All Blacks.” Next summer, no doubt. Same hour, same fight. But who, new zealand – xv france new then, will take part in this new test? And will we still have to send young people to the front? Maybe. But perhaps they will also have grown up. And perhaps, this time, they will hold more than an hour …