Julian Savea is a wrecking machine.
Advertisement
Julian Savea insists he will never match Jonah Lomu despite his stunning impression of the power wing with a bruising hat-trick against France.
Savea is the wrecking ball with pace, while his Hurricanes team mate brings the fancy feet and light touch.
New Zealand led 29-13 at the break but really ramped it up after the interval as France, dogged by stories of revolt and rebellion in the build-up, were swept aside in embarrassing fashion.
New Zealand remain on course to defend their Rugby World Cup crown after thrashing France at the Millennium Stadium.
Described by commentators as a “masterclass”, see how the world reacted to New Zealand’s performance.
The ball bounced kindly for Louis Picamoles and he shrugged off the attention of two defenders to make it to the line, his try confirmed by the television match official, and Parra converting.
However Hansen is acutely aware that the job is not done and wants his side to get back into their work with the same intensity in the build up for next weekend’s semi-final against South Africa at Twickenham.
Philippe Saint-Andre said he took a large part of the blame after his last game as France coach ended in a 62-13 World Cup humiliation by New Zealand, a team he dubbed the “Brazilians of rugby”.
“To be honest I would rather be applauded than booed”, Saint-Andre said of the reaction to the nine-try mauling that sees the All Blacks progress to a semi-final against South Africa.
Jerome Kaino, Kieran Read, Savea and a Tawera Kerr-Barlow brace rounded off what can only be described as a domineering performance by Steve Hansen’s side.
As New Zealand march towards making history by retaining their title, wretched France leave the tournament bedraggled and all-but clueless.
France were level nearly immediately, full-back Scott Spedding slotting a penalty from inside his own half, before second-row Retallick charged down a Freddie Michalak clearance kick and romped over for New Zealand’s first try.
The punishment just kept on coming for France as the All Blacks piled on the tries. They make the right decisions at the right time 99% of the time, and execute hard skills at speed.
They did and they came out to play, using one of Joe Schmidt’s favourite plays to send Fofana through a big gap, but New Zealand forced a turnover and escaped from their own line. If this is them playing badly the rest of the world might as well give up now.
Picamoles, France’s inspirational number eight, had other ideas and latched onto a loose pass in front of New Zealand’s posts and barged over, but when he was sin-binned for putting his fist in a prone Richie McCaw’s face soon after the restart, the French challenge evaporated.
“Once, the curious catalogue of World Cup failures unnerved them, to the point where they could only squeak past France in the 2011 final by a single point”.
Savea’s savaging of France will doubtless strike fear into all opponents, as New Zealand cranked up their World Cup tempo.
Advertisement
Replacements: J Moody for Crockett (28); B Barrett for Milner-Skudder (HT); C Faumuina for Franks and SB Williams for C Smith (both 52); K Mealamu for Coles (61); V Vito for Kaino and T Kerr-Barlow for A Smith (67); S Cane for McCaw (71).
