Jono Gibbes' reaction to France U20s putting 55 points on New Zealand

Jono Gibbes has admitted that Sunday night’s wounding 31-55 loss to France was a fair reflection on what happened in New Zealand’s World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final.

The Baby Blacks came into the fixture at the Cape Town Stadium having beaten the French 27-26 just 10 days earlier in a pool match in Stellenbosch. They fought back in that game from trailing 0-11 at the interval to grab victory with an 80th-minute Rico Simpson penalty kick.

However, they found themselves in a far worse position the second time around, losing 14-34 at the break, and despite scoring three tries in the second half, they picked up a 20-minute red card in the 50th minute for winger Stanley Solomon and ‘lost’ the half 17-21.

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Six-time champions New Zealand had been looking to qualify for their first World Rugby Championship final since 2017. But instead of contesting next Friday’s showpiece with England, they will instead feature in the third play-off against an Ireland side that lost its semi-final 20-31.

“Every little sniff they [France] got they ruthlessly executed on it,” said Gibbes to RugbyPass following his team’s seven tries to five defeat. “There is no complaints or gripes or anything, the scoreboard is a fair reflection of what happened out there.

“We didn’t turn up with the right execution to unseat the defending champion. They were really clinical, each opportunity they got they seemed to nail. We dug ourselves into a bit of a hole there 20 points behind.

“Every time we got a sniff of putting ourselves back in the game we would lose a key moment or cough something up and we never really stacked moments on top of moments. Their execution was really on point. Every single opportunity they had it seemed like they were able to put us under pressure.

“The difference between Stellenbosch and tonight was we tried to rally, we tried to respond, we tried to counter punch but we just missed a couple of key things, we’d knock the ball on or have it stripped or miss touch, little things that just let them breathe.”

New Zealand fell two converted tries behind just seven minutes into the semi-final and while they hit back with a 10th-minute penalty try and another from scrum-half Dylan Pledger six minutes later to leave the score 14-21, they couldn’t add to that tally and reached the break 14-34 down.

Two tries in four minutes from King Maxwell and Aki Tuivailala did leave the score at 24-41 with a full 20 minutes still to play. However, a Simpson pass was then intercepted by the try-scoring Mathis Ferte to end that mini fightback and Andrew Smith’s try later on was only a consolation.

Gibbes believed New Zealand did have a comeback chance until the Ferte intercept. “Yeah, absolutely. We put an 11-point lead behind us at Stellenbosch.

“Twenty is quite large against a good team but we had seen even in that first 40 a couple of glimpses of, ‘Look, if we deliver on our principles that we have been strong on all along in the tournament, that is what is going to give us the best chance’.

“We didn’t need anything magic, but unfortunately, like I said, we just didn’t stack positive moments on top of positive moments.

Mathis Ferte goes the distance! ????#WorldRugbyU20s | #NZLvFRA pic.twitter.com/OEvXMK9PqZ

— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) July 14, 2024

“There is no complaints on the result, the result is clear, the better team won, the team that executed won but it doesn’t diminish the fact that these young guys are absolutely committed to playing well.

“They have trained really well and the guys outside of the group have been really good. Unfortunately at a high level against a good team, if we are not on point regularly or stacking points up, you can get exposed.”

Was there any silver lining in the immediate aftermath of conceding 55 points? “Not tonight, not right now because we have been eliminated out of contention but look, I don’t think anyone could question our intent.

“We tried to go all the way to the wire, it was seven-five the tries tally but we will regroup tomorrow and some things we just have to understand at this level and dust ourselves off and give Ireland the best version of ourselves in the next game.

“The next game is important, especially after conceding 55 points in a semi-final. It’s important that we have a response and I am really confident with the group, if we are consistent in our behaviours and we look after each other during the week, Ireland will get a good version of ourselves.”