Aotearoa New Zealand v France 4/7/26

[Kiwiwomble]

first squad for Rennie, savea back to 8..Jacobson at 7...the immediate response from kiwis ive seen, surprised, a little confused

no BB....finally....a new dawn

 

[mackerzz]

lol i just posted this too

 

[Kiwiwomble]

lol i just posted this too

great minds

 

[Alex Anghel]

Pretty odd selection in the loosies, I would have expected that Rens will not pick players out of position anymore.

Moorby at 14 would have been better I reckon, since he played so consistently in the SR.

Anyways, can’t wait to see Love at 10!

 

[mackerzz]

France Squad;

1. Jefferson Poirot
2. Maxime Lamothe
3. Demba Bamba
4. Hugo Auradou
5. Tom Staniforth
6. Pierre Bochaton
7. Oscar Jegou
8. Marko Gazzotti
9. Maxime Lucu
10. Matthieu Jalibert
11. Theo Attissogbe
12. Yoram Moefana
13. Fabien Brau-Boirie
14. Damian Penaud
15. Max Spring

16. Barnabe Massa
17. Reda Wardi
18. Regis Montagne
19. Mickael Guillard
20. Killian Tixeront
21. Nolann Le Garrec
22. Antoine Hastoy
23. Nicolas Depoortere

 

[mackerzz]

All Blacks Squad;

1. Ethan de Groot
2. Codie Taylor
3. Fletcher Newell
4. Josh Lord
5. Sam Darry
6. Peter Lakai
7. Luke Jacobson
8. Ardie Savea (captain)
9. Cam Roigard
10. Ruben Love
11. Caleb Clarke
12. Jordie Barrett
13. Quinn Tupaea
14. Will Jordan
15. Damian McKenzie

16. Asafo Aumua
17. Xavier Numia *
18. Tyrel Lomax
19. Patrick Tuipulotu
20. Wallace Sititi
21. Cortez Ratima
22. Billy Proctor
23. Fehi Fineanganofo *
* Denotes new test cap

 

[mackerzz]

France Squad;

1. Jefferson Poirot
2. Maxime Lamothe
3. Demba Bamba
4. Hugo Auradou
5. Tom Staniforth
6. Pierre Bochaton
7. Oscar Jegou
8. Marko Gazzotti
9. Maxime Lucu
10. Matthieu Jalibert
11. Theo Attissogbe
12. Yoram Moefana
13. Fabien Brau-Boirie
14. Damian Penaud
15. Max Spring

16. Barnabe Massa
17. Reda Wardi
18. Regis Montagne
19. Mickael Guillard
20. Killian Tixeront
21. Nolann Le Garrec
22. Antoine Hastoy
23. Nicolas Depoortere

It's not their best squad, but it's still pretty strong. About as good as it could be without Toulouse

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Pretty odd selection in the loosies, I would have expected that Rens will not pick players out of position anymore.

Moorby at 14 would have been better I reckon, since he played so consistently in the SR.

Anyways, can’t wait to see Love at 10!

i didnt watch the press conference but have seen people say they suggested during it that the loosies might be playing left and right rather than open and blind

still...based on where they have all played most recently i would have thought

6. LJ
7. Savea
8. Lakai

i mean Lakai was arguably the best loosie in super rugby playing at 8

 

[Gavin]

What a start from France

 

[big ginger 8]

Jalibert has a psychic link with his boys.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Lucu / Jalibert > any half back pairing with Dupont in it. (Could just use the first half of that sentence too)

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

This is class. McKenzie is on one.

 

[Quel Carreleur]

Bloody ITVX!
Can either watch from the start of the programme, or live.
But can't watch from the start of the match, and forward past dead-time.
Do have to be shown spoilers before making the decision

 

[ShropshireAllBlack]

Great clearing kick by the Barret boy, his time in Leinster did him so much good…

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Oooh la la

 

[big ginger 8]

Guillard sucks in so many tacklers.

 

[Gavin]

Penaud off for Hastoy feels weird unless he's injured

 

[big ginger 8]

Way to make up for the knock on.

 

[Gavin]

Didn't look like a clear knock on in the air really. Play on.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Don't think there's anyway to tell that def went forward considering Love was moving towards the ball at pace. Hometown call, France getting a taste of their own medicine though.

 

[AngloScotsHybrid]

Guillard sucks in so many tacklers.

And he has good hands for a forward.

 

[Gavin]

Why on earth did France kick that? Ball in hand and move forward.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

There might not be a better game in this comp this year.

Good result for both teams really.

 

[argie]

34-32 for AB. Good win.

 

[ikvat]

Nice entertainment.
Not bad for an experimental team.
Well done NZ.

 

[dirty harry]

Cracking game this morning, i think France will feel that was one that got away, tries disalowed and butchered...

Top quality though, probably 2 of the best 3 teams on the world.

The only gripe i had, was NZ getting too much leeway at the breakdown, that last 90 seconds was a great example, they just sealed everything off, but not that id criticised NZ for that

 

[Quel Carreleur]

Cracking match.
Wish I'd remembered that ITV have a +1 channel, which would have saved me about 2 hours and a lot of frustration dealing with ITVX.
Spoilers for the final score in Japan, so over to the 2nd half in Aus

 

[Stade Rochelais]

Cracking game this morning, i think France will feel that was one that got away, tries disalowed and butchered...

Top quality though, probably 2 of the best 3 teams on the world.

The only gripe i had, was NZ getting too much leeway at the breakdown, that last 90 seconds was a great example, they just sealed everything off, but not that id criticised NZ for that

You can't win with a referee like that. Ruben Love's high tackle on Max Spring was a red card. Otherwise, and let's not be hypocritical, the Frenchman would have received a red card.

The try was disallowed for a French knock-on; the play wasn't very clear. If the match had been played in Paris, the try would have been awarded to the All Blacks.

I'll just point out one thing, and this is my personal opinion: there's a blatant bias among Anglo-Saxon referees towards Anglo-Saxon nations.

Third World mentality. There is a large element of truth in what I'm saying.

Identical action and foul: All Blacks - Lions
Red card for Sonny Bill Williams

Vunipola high tacle = red card

 

[Kiwiwomble]

the clear difference for me is SBW's arm is always down, always looking to shoulder charge...Love starts with his arm out looking to wrap (arm comes down after impact), one is an illegal tackle action leading to illegal head contact and the other is a legal tackle action poorly executed leading legal head contact

The only gripe i had, was NZ getting too much leeway at the breakdown, that last 90 seconds was a great example, they just sealed everything off, but not that id criticised NZ for that

and kiwi forums are full of comments about Pearce spending the final 20m trying to keep france in the game....so the reality is probably that he was pretty fair

 

[mackerzz]

You can't win with a referee like that. Ruben Love's high tackle on Max Spring was a red card. Otherwise, and let's not be hypocritical, the Frenchman would have received a red card.

The try was disallowed for a French knock-on; the play wasn't very clear. If the match had been played in Paris, the try would have been awarded to the All Blacks.

I'll just point out one thing, and this is my personal opinion: there's a blatant bias among Anglo-Saxon referees towards Anglo-Saxon nations.

Third World mentality. There is a large element of truth in what I'm saying.

Identical action and foul: All Blacks - Lions
Red card for Sonny Bill Williams

Vunipola high tacle = red card

The SBW and Vunipola tackles you can clearly see that the arm was tucked. In the second image Love clearly had his arm out in an attempt to wrap. But yes, I think he was very lucky not to be sent off.