By WYNNE GRAY
NEW ZEALAND 39 FRANCE 26
PARIS - Analogies between sport and war can be as odious as the atrocities of battle.
But yesterday at Stade de France, the All Blacks played with the courage and grit of those New Zealanders they went to remember last week on their pilgrimage to the First World War battlefields in Europe.
On a day when French President Jacques Chirac paused during his Armistice Day speeches to implore the Tricolors to repeat their World Cup semifinal deeds and then wished New Zealand a little luck, the All Blacks spoiled the celebrations.
No one can remove their first inscription on the Dave Gallaher Trophy for competition between the former allies.
"With the poppy on the arm of the All Black jersey on Armistice Day, this was a significant event for all of us and I think we did ourselves proud," captain Todd Blackadder said.
In a game punctuated too often for the crowd by referee Wayne Erickson's whistle, the All Blacks soaked up a fearful physical assault to win 39-26.
Andrew Mehrtens kicked beautifully for 29 points to become the fastest player to pass 700 test points, while swift counter-attacks brought tries to Doug Howlett and Christian Cullen.
With just a few minutes remaining, the All Blacks were ahead 39-12, far too much of a lead for the French to repeat their outrageous come-from-behind victory as they did last season at Twickenham.
But they were awarded two late tries to remind the All Blacks that test two in Marseilles next weekend may be even more difficult.
Both sides were at fever-pitch for this test and before the anthems, touch-judge Jim Fleming had to corral the French away from eyeballing their opposition.
The All Blacks were jittery and muffed the opening kickoff, though it was their only lapse at restarts during the game.
Intent on pinning the French down their end of the ground, Mehrtens had a couple of early wobbly punts and so did Cullen. When they tried to use the ball a little they suffered from knock-ons, a fate suffered by the French as well in what was a fairly mundane opening 30 minutes.
By then, Mehrtens and Christophe Lamaison had each goaled four penalties, with Erickson finding a succession of scrum, breakdown and lineout infringements.
The All Blacks had also lost Norm Maxwell and Daryl Gibson, the pair colliding with disastrous results.
Maxwell did not return after suffering a big cut on his eyelid and forehead, while Gibson came back for most of the second half after stitches to a head wound.
While the All Blacks' lineout, restarts and defence were in solid shape, the scrum was under pressure throughout.
If Greg Feek was not penalised for taking the scrum up on the loosehead side, Greg Somerville was being pinged for dropping it on the tighthead.
In his first test start at centre, Tana Umaga made a great cut after the interval, but threw a pass to no one when a try seemed apparent.
The French pushed forward to the All Black 22, but in a mad-headed move, centre Richard Dourthe went off his feet in his frenzy to help the forwards.
As he was admonished by his team-mates, the All Blacks pounced. They tapped the penalty and Cullen sliced through to find Umaga, who drew the last defender and this time landed the ball in Howlett's hands to cap a 70m move.
Two more Mehrtens penalties, including a 51m monster which easily cleared the bar, and at 31-12 the test was nearly safe.
However, the scrum remained in disarray and Erickson finally warned that another infringement would mean a prop in the sinbin.
After five minutes of frantic defence the All Blacks got away from the shadow of their own line and Cullen instigated the defining try.
The fullback chipped for Jonah Lomu to regather and as the huge wing was lowered, he flipped the ball up for Cullen to score his 11th test try this year and maintain his run of scoring in each international this season.
The pass was forward and could have been off the ground, but Fleming, the man who notices knock-ons from 100m but could not see a Dourthe penalty cross the bar at the same stadium last week, signalled fair try to his referee. That was enough for the French section of the 78,000 crowd, who broke into derisive taunts aimed at Erickson, telling him which direction to head for and questioning his sexuality.
The French claimed their late tries, including one to Fabien Pelous, when everyone in the grandstand could see he had not forced the ball.
It was a square-up for Cullen's try, but too late for any French satisfaction.
All Blacks 39 (Doug Howlett, Christian Cullen tries; Andrew Mehrtens 9 pen, 1 con) France 26 (Philippe Bernat-Salles, Fabien Pelous tries; Christophe Lamaison 4 pen, 2 con). Ht: 15-12.
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