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Seven-try France hammer New Zealand to book U20 final versus England

Mathis Castro-Ferreira scores one of his three tries for France (Photo by Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images via Getty Images)

Defending champions France remain on course to win their fourth successive World Rugby U20 Championship after they hammered New Zealand 55-31 in an action-packed semi-final in Cape Town.

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Beaten 26-27 by an 80th-minute Baby Blacks penalty in a July 4 pool match in Stellenbosch, the French only reached the last four as the tournament’s best runner-up across the three pools courtesy of last Tuesday’s victory over Wales.

However, they made brilliant use of that reprieve to blitz New Zealand in this rematch with a smashing attacking performance. They scored four first-half tries to lead 34-14 at the break and then added three more to set up a decider next Friday versus England, the team who came to Pau 17 weeks ago to win 45-31 and clinch the age-grade Six Nations title.

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HITS, BUMPS AND HANDOFFS! | The biggest collisions from the U20s World Championships

With the marvellous Hugo Reus at the very top of his orchestral game and Mathis Castro-Ferreira gluttonously dominating in the forwards, France began like an express train, scoring tries on four and seven minutes to take an early 14-point lead.

New Zealand had only themselves to blame for the first concession, failing to properly protect themselves at a ruck by having enough players on guard. This vulnerability was exploited by Joe Quere Karaba, who picked up and took the direct route to the line from the 22, and Reus converted.

Turnovers

3
Turnovers Won
8
26
Turnovers Lost
10

The next score, though, was all about French flair rather than Kiwi shortcomings in defence. Hoani Bosmorin motored down the left and threw a pass to Reus, who produced something ridiculously sublime by lofting a pass inside while in the air over the touchline as he was tackled by Rico Simpson. Charly Gambini grasped the dropping ball to score and Reus slotted the sideline conversion.

New Zealand hit back on 10 minutes, a penalty try coming from a collapsed driving maul. Geoffrey Malaterre was yellow-carded for the offence but if being a man short was supposed to impede the French, the message never got passed on as they ‘won’ the sin-binning 10-7.

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A gigantic break from Barnabe Massa fractured the Kiwis and when the play probed right, tighthead Lino Julien delivered a sweet assist for Castro-Ferreira to dive in at the corner. Reus guided over the conversion and also landed a 19-minute penalty from the 10-metre line three minutes after Dylan Pledger sold the French a pup with a lovely dash to the line for a converted try when a ruck was left unguarded.

All that tremendous high-tempo action left the scoreline 24-14 in favour of the French and there was more to come. Jonathan Lee would have felt unfortunate to have been held up over the line with a quick penalty tap for New Zealand from five metres out and that let-off was costly as France had 10 further points on the board by the 33rd minute.

Playing a man off the ball cost the Baby Blacks possession and with the resulting French lineout purposely going over the top and being caught in the midfield, a penalty advantage was subsequently won down the other touchline, inviting Reus to look up and kick back to the other side and give the ball-catching Castro-Ferreira an easy run-in.

Next, a Bosmorin kick ahead temped Simpson to run the ball back from his line but he was mowed down and penalised for a no-release, allowing Reus to kick the penalty.

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Behind by 20 points, New Zealand needed relief but a sloppy Lee fumble left them frustrated as did a penalty kick to touch by Simpson that instead went dead, leaving them heading down the tunnel with a vastly bigger mountain to climb than the 11-point margin they were behind at the break in Stellenbosch 10 days ago.

Just five minutes after coming back up the tunnel, their situation worsened as pick-and-go wore them down and Castro-Ferreira dived over for his hat-trick try, a score inevitably added to by Reus for 41-14. New Zealand fleetingly thought they had a straw to clutch with a 50th-minute yellow card for French sub loosehead Lorencio Boyer-Gallardo.

However, TMO detected some follow-up foul play from Stanley Solomon on the clearance-kicking Leo Carbonneau. Instead of 10 minutes with a man advantage and penalty kick to the corner, the penalty was overturned and Solomon also received a yellow card that was quickly upgraded to red.

That should have been the end of it but New Zealand scored unconverted tries in a four-minute spell from sub King Maxwell, with his first touch, and Aki Tuivailala to make it 41-24 with a full 20 minutes still to play.

Was one of the greatest comebacks of all time now suddenly a possibility? No was the blunt answer as Mathis Ferte picked off a Simpson pass and raced from his own half to score the try that Reus converted for 48-24.

The Kiwis still weren’t done as there was a converted Andrew Smith try on 67 minutes, but neither were France finished and Reus’ crosskick put in Xan Mousques for their seventh converted try nine minutes from the finish of what was a spectacular team performance.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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