Getting inside the minds of the All Blacks, just like four years ago, will be the key for France in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday.
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This is not the first time that French players have rebelled against a coach during the World Cup.
The winners will take on the Springboks for a place in the final.
“We won’t play the All Blacks on Saturday, we will play New Zealand”, Saint-Andre said.
However, it is well documented how a fragmented French side can be galvanised when they face the All Blacks in a do-or-die situation. Their game was built around flair in the backs and real physicality up front.
“We totally trust Philippe and we want to win this game”.
“When you play against New Zealand, you have to dig deeper in your resources and to get into a trance”, he said calling on his players to find “this additional soul, generosity, craziness, mischief and intelligence to have our opponents losing their self-confidence”.
The All Blacks are backing a band of ageing warriors led by Richie McCaw in their showdown with France today to bury a nightmare in a rematch of their 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter-final.
Professor Hermansson says while history shows the All Blacks do have problems at the elimination phase of the tournament that’s no reason to be anxious this time. “They’re obviously picking on form and what’s most damaging against us”, he said, describing Fofana as “one of the flairy guys” who will command a lot of attention. I’m not sure it’s the same flair they have now.
We’re still together until the end of the competition, players, coaches, medical staff.’ The 2011 revolution served France well, with Lievremont’s side narrowly losing to hosts New Zealand in the final.
New Zealand captain Richie McCaw returns after injury for the quarter-final, but the Kiwis have dropped dropped winger Waisake Nah. “They’ll certainly throw everythIng at us”, Read said.
But the most notorious game in All Blacks-France rivalry was 1986’s so-called “Battle of Nantes”.
The victor on Saturday will move on to play the victor of Saturday’s South Africa-Wales match in the semi-finals.
For the teams and players, what they are experiencing now – the nerves and the pressure – will be very different from what they have been feeling for the previous four weeks. I think we have to focus on ourselves firstly.
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The second half was all one-way traffic with the All Blacks producing easily their best 40 minutes of the tournament. It is good to have a game plan, but let’s avoid thinking too much about it and asking 50,000 questions.
