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Three tries from Julian Savea highlighted a stunning performance from the All Blacks at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. New Zealand humiliated France, scoring nine tries en route to a 62-13 victory in their quarter-final. Any questions of form were put swiftly to bed as the All Blacks dominated the match from start to finish, much to the chagrin of the French supporters in attendance.
Dan Carter exchanged penalties with Scott Spedding in the opening minutes, the latter’s a booming effort from beyond halfway, but then the doom set in. Brodie Retallick charged down a Freddie Michalak clearance attempt to gallop over as the French flyhalf limped off with a damaged hamstring and a shattered ego.
Morgan Parra stepped up to slot over a penalty goal in the 15th minute, but missed a sitter soon after and watched helplessly as Nehe Milner-Skudder stepped inside some poor outside defense to score New Zealand’s second try a few minutes later. Savea’s first followed quickly, a run-in after a brilliant backhanded offload from Carter put him away on the 22 metre line.
Louis Picamoles, one of few Frenchmen who made an impact on the day, picked up a lucky bounce and barged over to give France some hope, but that was quickly dashed by Savea’s second. In a run that will be on highlight reels for years to come, the big winger did his best impression of another great All Black winger by smashing three defenders out of his way to score a devastating try in the corner.
With France reduced to 14 men thanks to some Picamoles handbags, Beauden Barrett executed a textbook 2-on-1 to give Jerome Kaino an opportunity to get on the score sheet, and from then on it was one way traffic as the French heads dropped. Savea got his hat trick just before the hour mark, followed by one try to Kieran Read and two to replacement scrumhalf Tawera Kerr-Barlow. Ma’a Nonu looked to score a breakaway effort to kill the clock only to knock on in the tackle as he crossed the line.
New Zealand now move on to face South Africa in the first semi-final next weekend at Twickenham. France fade away into the shadows with Philippe Saint-André’s tumultuous tenure finally at an end and a fresh start under renowned Toulouse head coach Guy Noves on the horizon in the upcoming Six Nations.
NEW ZEALAND 62
Tries – J. Savea 3 (29, 38, 59), T. Kerr-Barlow 2 (68, 71), B. Retallick (11) N. Milner-Skudder (23), J. Kaino (50), K. Read (64)
Cons – D. Carter 7 (12, 25, 31, 60, 65, 68, 72)
Pens – D. Carter (7)
FRANCE 13
Tries – L. Picamoles (36)
Cons – M. Parra (37)
Pens – S. Spedding (9), M. Parra (15)
Yellow cards – L. Picamoles (47)
NEW ZEALAND
1 W. Crockett (J. Moody 28) 2 D. Coles (K. Mealamu 60) 3 O. Franks (C. Faumuina 51) 4 B. Retallick 5 S. Whitelock 6 J. Kaino (V. Vito 65) 7 R. McCaw (capt.) (S. Cane 68) 8 K. Read 9 A. Smith (T. Kerr-Barlow 65) 10 D. Carter 11 J. Savea 12 M. Nonu 13 C. Smith (S. Williams 52) 14 N. Milner-Skudder (B. Barrett HT) 15 B. Smith
FRANCE
1 E. Ben Arous (V. Debaty 61) 2 G. Guirado (D. Szarzewski 56) 3 R. Slimani (N. Mas 60) 4 P. Papé (Y. Nyanga 47) 5 Y. Maestri 6 T. Dusautoir (capt.) 7 B. le Roux 8 L. Picamoles (D. Chouly 72) 9 M. Parra (R. Kockott 68) 10 F. Michalak (R. Talès 12) 11 B. Dulin 12 W. Fofana 13 A. Dumoulin (M. Bastareaud 61) 14 N. Nakaitaci 15 S. Spedding
