Galthie hails 'special match' as France edge to narrow win over All Blacks

Galthie hails 'special match' as France edge to narrow win over All Blacks

Fabien Galthie says it was a "special match" after France edged past New Zealand 30-29 on Saturday.

The All Blacks held the lead at half-time as tries from Peter Lakai and Cam Roigard helped put them 17-10 up, with Romain Buros powering over on his debut to keep France in touching distance.

However, the hosts flipped the script in the second half, coming out strong as Paul Boudehent dotted down after a powerful maul to help level the scoreline.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey then gave them the lead, and though Damien McKenzie's penalties kept the All Blacks on France's heels, Tomas Ramos also stayed perfect with his kicks, doing enough to help them record a third straight win over New Zealand.

Les Bleus had gone 14 games without a win against New Zealand prior to this run, while it is the first time since 1994-95 they have managed three in a row against their opponents.


Galthie was delighted with his players' focus to ensure they overcame the half-time deficit.

"It was a special match; we know the opponent. When you see the scenario of the match, winning by one point, it brings back memories," he told TF1.


"We have six years of experience with this team. For a few years, we have had arguments, we have identified how to play them, we are sticking to this roadmap. We had to keep our heads down.

"At half-time, we found solutions. It's a close call, but a point is a lot. I am very proud, this is the third time we have hosted them. Three times we have beaten them. We have confidence. They have given us weaknesses, cracks."

New Zealand, meanwhile, saw a five-game winning run ended as they suffered their first defeat since early September.

Ardie Savea admitted that they struggled against France's aggressiveness in the second half, and was disappointed they did not deal with the threat better.

"Extremely disappointed with ourselves not to win the game. We made silly mistakes. We turned the ball over to this French squad, which can punish us and they did. I'm pretty gutted," he told TNT Sports.

"Of course, you [have to credit France in the second half]. We felt like we were in control, and we were pretty accurate in the first half, but in the second half, we let them in the game.

"They applied pressure on us, and we couldn't handle it. Towards the end, we just got stuck in our line and we couldn't do it. I'm extremely disappointed but proud of the boys.

"We didn't hit our targets. We want to win everything, but we couldn't, and that's credit to the French squad, they're a quality side. We have to look in the mirror and see where we could've put the nail in the coffin because we didn't do that."

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