Cam Roigard and Will Jordan scored two tries each as New Zealand held on to edge an under-strength France 34-32 in a thriller in Christchurch on Saturday to open the inaugural Nations Championship.
It was the All Blacks’ first Test under their new coach, Dave Rennie, and he saw France run his team close despite fielding a lineup without any players from top clubs Toulouse and Montpellier.
Rennie, who took over from Scott Robertson in January, had promised “optimistic” rugby from his team, wanting to limit kicking and free up his players to run and attack when they see an opportunity. “I love the effort. I love the optimism,” said the 62-year-old Rennie, who most recently coached Kobe in Japan.
“We were able to play with a really high tempo, a lot of quick ball, almost 85%, which is just outrageous. We did a lot of really good things with the ball.”
But Rennie highlighted a number of errors and a mixed defensive effort as New Zealand were able to recycle the ball rapidly at the breakdown, but France were just as quick as they scored four tries to the All Blacks’ five. “I can’t fault the effort, I love the mindset, but we’ve got to be a lot more accurate,” Rennie said.
“We just need more time, more reps, more work around the combinations. There’s a lot of guts. We scrambled really well at times, but we’ve got to get off the line and apply a lot more pressure, give them slow balls so we can reset and get off the line and do it again.”
The France coach, Fabien Galthié, had his side start at a frantic tempo playing with great pace and accuracy in the opening exchanges. Damian Penaud, France’s record try scorer, took his total to 41 in just the second minute as he cantered over the line.
In the buildup, the full-back Max Spring was hit high by Ruben Love, earning the fly-half a yellow card and crowning a horror opening two minutes for the Rennie era. A man down, New Zealand started to find their feet and struck back in the eighth minute through Jordan, after their captain, Ardie Savea, earned a turnover in a good position.
It was a rare success for New Zealand at the breakdown as France won quick ball and dealt well with any attempted All Blacks disruption, leaving the hosts scrambling on defence. After Love’s return, New Zealand’s running game came to life as he and Damian McKenzie made forays into the French half.
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Peter Lakai gave New Zealand the lead in the 21st minute, put through after a McKenzie break and a fine inside pass from Caleb Clarke. A pair of French penalties for Maxime Lucu nudged his team in front until a Roigard snipe from the back of the ruck gave New Zealand a 19-13 lead at the break.
France started the faster again in the second half as Antoine Hastoy scored in the 47th minute after a Theo Attissogbe basketball-style pass over three markers. Roigard had his second try moments later, before Attissogbe struck for France after a Fabien Brau-Boirie try was disallowed for a knock-on.
Jordan scored to go joint second all time for the All Blacks on 47 Test tries, and for the first time New Zealand had breathing space at 34-25 with nine minutes to go.
However, France struck back again, Matthieu Jalibert bundling over the line with two minutes remaining. But New Zealand’s forwards retained possession from the restart to see out the clock and hang on for victory.
