New Zealand Survive France Onslaught to Launch Nations Championship in Style
New Zealand needed all of the second half’s 40 minutes and a fair share of composure in the closing exchanges to see off a France side that refused to let the inaugural Nations Championship settle into anything resembling a comfortable script. The All Blacks won 34-32 at Christchurch’s One NZ Stadium (Te Kaha), but the scoreline barely hints at how often the momentum shifted, or how close France came to spoiling Dave Rennie’s first Test back in charge.
Nine tries, two Tier 1 heavyweights, and a margin that never stretched much beyond two scores made this the kind of spectacle a new tournament needs from its opening fixture. In the end, it was New Zealand’s finishing rather than any prolonged period of dominance that separated the sides. The occasion demanded a fixture worthy of it. Te Kaha, built to replace the earthquake-lost Lancaster Park, was hosting its first senior international in front of a sell-out crowd of 29,152. In the home dugout, Rennie was launching his second stint in charge of the All Blacks, with Patrick Tuipulotu injured and, more strikingly, Beauden Barrett left out of the starting XV in favour of Ruben Love at fly-half.
A Chaotic Opening Sets the Tone
France laid down an immediate marker. Damian Penaud crossed inside the first minute, and Maxime Lucu’s conversion had the visitors 7-0 up before New Zealand had settled. A minute later, Ruben Love was sent to the sin bin, leaving the hosts to play roughly ten minutes with fourteen men in just the second minute of Rennie’s tenure — hardly the start he would have preferred.
What followed said plenty about the identity New Zealand were trying to build. Will Jordan finished from broken play in the seventh minute despite the numerical disadvantage, and by the time Peter Lakai added a second try in the 20th, the All Blacks had turned an early defensive crisis into a 12-10 lead. Lucu kept France in touch with two penalties either side of Lakai’s score, but New Zealand’s ability to produce points while down a man set the pattern for the rest of the contest. This was a match won in moments, not through sustained territorial control.
It was, Rennie admitted afterwards, exactly as scrappy as it had looked. “There were plenty of things we liked, but also plenty we’ll need to improve,” he said, before delivering the most pointed line of his post-match press conference: “France challenged us right across the park.”
The Pre-Half-Time Score That Shifted the Balance
If there was a single passage that shaped the outcome, it arrived in first-half stoppage time. Cam Roigard’s try in the 39th minute, converted by Love, sent New Zealand into the sheds 19-13 ahead — a lead built less on dominance than on ruthlessness. New Zealand’s forward pack consistently generated front-foot ball that fed Roigard quick possession, and the scrum-half’s try just before the interval was the clearest expression of that platform translating into points at the moment it mattered most.
That six-point cushion mattered because France, for all their attacking threat, were never able to build a lead of their own beyond the opening exchanges. New Zealand’s pattern throughout the match was to answer pressure with a score rather than simply absorb it, and the last play of the half was the first real evidence of that trend.
France’s Second-Half Surge
France came out swinging after the break. Antoine Hastoy’s try in the 46th minute, converted by Lucu, did more than close the gap — it put France in front for the first time since the opening exchanges, 20-19. New Zealand’s response was immediate. Roigard crossed for his second try three minutes later, and Love’s conversion restored a six-point cushion at 26-20. It was the clearest illustration yet of a match that simply would not settle. Every time France found momentum, New Zealand had an answer ready.
Théo Attissogbe’s try in the 58th minute, born out of France’s reliance on strike runners in wide channels, brought the visitors back to within a single point, and although Love’s penalty in the 65th minute restored some breathing room at 29-25, France were still very much alive. Their bench played a significant role in sustaining that pressure through the final quarter, helping generate the momentum that nearly completed an extraordinary comeback.
Matthieu Jalibert’s try in the 77th minute, converted by Hastoy, brought France to within two points at 34-32 with barely three minutes remaining. New Zealand, mindful of the collapse threatening to unravel their afternoon, retained possession through the closing phases to see out the win — a passage that owed more to composure under pressure than to any tactical masterstroke.
Clinical When It Counted
Strip away the chaos, and the story of this match is really about efficiency. New Zealand scored five tries from comparatively fewer sustained attacking opportunities than a dominant scoreline might imply. Their big moments — Roigard’s pre-half-time try and Jordan’s second in the 70th minute — produced decisive scoreboard shifts rather than simply adding to the total when they were already ahead. France finished with four tries and a losing bonus point, reflecting genuine competitiveness rather than late-game charity. They twice came close to taking control — briefly moving ahead after Hastoy’s try, then cutting the deficit to a single point through Attissogbe — but could never build enough pressure to get back in front when the clock mattered most.
That distinction — between dominance and finishing — is likely to define how this match is remembered. France’s aggressive line speed created real problems for New Zealand’s first receivers throughout, and their transition attack punished any lapse in defensive spacing. But New Zealand’s defensive system, even when stretched by France’s broken-field threats, did enough at the moments that mattered, while its attack rarely wasted the ball when the game was there to be won.
Individual Performances
Roigard’s two tries and his influence in tempo-setting around the ruck earned him the Player of the Match award, a fair reflection of a performance that produced New Zealand’s two most significant scores of the match; The try before half-time and the response to Hastoy’s opener after the break. Jordan’s brace bookended the contest, his opening try coming amid the early chaos and his second arriving at the moment New Zealand most needed to reassert control. Lakai’s work rate as a carrier and defender, in his first Test start at blindside flanker (No. 6), was undeniably one of the standout forward performances of the day, while Love’s night was a study in redemption — a second-minute yellow card followed by 11 points from the tee, including the conversions on both of Roigard’s tries.
For France, Penaud’s blistering start set an early tone the team never entirely abandoned, and Hastoy’s growing influence (a try and two second-half conversions) underlined his importance to France’s comeback effort. Jalibert’s late score and Lucu’s reliable game-management with the boot kept France within touching distance for the entirety of the contest.
Own the Breakdown
France’s competitiveness carried extra weight given their personnel. Missing players from Top 14 finalists Toulouse and Montpellier because of domestic scheduling, they were nonetheless good enough to leave New Zealand’s ground with both a losing bonus point and an attacking bonus point — a result that, while a defeat, extends a run of near misses in New Zealand stretching back to 2009. Fabien Galthié’s post-match message, by all accounts, centred on the character his side showed to stay competitive throughout, a sentiment the match amply supported.
For New Zealand, the result offers a promising, if unfinished, starting point. A performance built on efficiency rather than control will need refining if the All Blacks are to avoid similarly nervy finishes as the Nations Championship progresses. But a first win of the Rennie era, earned against a Tier 1 opponent that never stopped pushing, is exactly the platform a new coaching regime needs.Round 1 of rugby’s newest tournament delivered nine tries and two points between two heavyweight nations; how both sides respond to what they’ve learned here will shape the rounds still to come.
New Zealand
Starting: 1 Ethan de Groot, 2 Codie Taylor, 3 Fletcher Newell, 4 Josh Lord, 5 Sam Darry, 6 Peter Lakai, 7 Luke Jacobson, 8 Ardie Savea (c), 9 Cam Roigard, 10 Ruben Love, 11 Caleb Clarke, 12 Jordie Barrett, 13 Quinn Tupaea, 14 Will Jordan, 15 Damian McKenzie
Impact: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Xavier Numia, 18 Tyrel Lomax, 19 Patrick Tuipulotu, 20 Wallace Sititi, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Billy Proctor, 23 Fehi Fineanganofo
France
Starting: 1 Jefferson Poirot, 2 Maxime Lamothe, 3 Demba Bamba, 4 Hugo Auradou, 5 Tom Staniforth, 6 Pierre Bochaton, 7 Oscar Jegou, 8 Marko Gazzotti, 9 Maxime Lucu (c), 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 11 Théo Attissogbe, 12 Yoram Moefana, 13 Fabien Brau‑Boirie, 14 Damian Penaud, 15 Max Spring
Impact: 16 Barnabé Massa, 17 Reda Wardi, 18 Régis Montagne, 19 Mickaël Guillard, 20 Killian Tixeront, 21 Nolann Le Garrec, 22 Antoine Hastoy, 23 Nicolas Depoortère
Venue: One New Zealand Stadium, Christchurch
Kick‑off: 19:10 NZST
Attendance: ~30,000 (sold‑out)
Match Officials
Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Christophe Ridley (RFU), Katsuki Furuse (JRFU)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)
FPRO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
