Paris is fast becoming a graveyard for All Blacks’ aspirations, a venue which now genuinely does seem to carry all sorts of demons that get into players’ heads and persuade them to do all sorts of things they wouldn’t normally do.
A 30-29 loss to France could and should have been a moderately comfortable win for the All Blacks.
By the end of the first half, they had the patient prepped, shaved, anaesthetised and prone on the table, just waiting for the cold, clinical blade to get on with the dissection.
But it never came. The All Blacks, busy, mostly accurate and really quite innovative and intuitive, reached halftime with France blowing and creaking, having made 111 tackles.
New Zealand’s rugby was busy and flowing – there was clever movement, sharp passing, good decision-making and the all-critical poise when the trigger had to be pulled.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it was their best attacking half of rugby this year and France knew they were hanging on.
They were scrambling to live with the pace of the game and, deep down, they also knew they were living off some curiously generous scrum interpretations and that under a different referee, the All Blacks may have been declared unanimous winners and awarded a knockout stream of penalties.
But test football is an 80-minute game, and one dominant half does not a victory make – a lesson the All Blacks have been taught three times this season already.
They had France where they wanted them, but through a combination of inaccuracy, a lack of composure, a few lapses in discipline – and a bit of Gallic flair and opportunism – the game slipped away from New Zealand.
It was all the usual fine-margin stuff – a pass that was six inches off the mark by Tupou Vai’i could have ended in a try to Will Jordan but saw Louis Bielle-Biarrey touch down for France.
A marginal neck roll by Ofa Tuungafasi cost three points; a bad decision by Codie Taylor to wade round the side of a maul cost three points. A poor lineout throw by Asafo Aumua with 14 minutes to go blew a golden opportunity to attack the French line and get in front.
These were all little mistakes with big consequences and when the All Blacks needed to be assured and graft their way back in front with a disciplined, accurate, clinical surge, they seemed to be gripped by the jitters.
France did what France do best and played smartly off mistakes and let the crowd do their bit in helping them build these compelling blasts of momentum, but the All Blacks know their own failings were the lead architect of their opponent’s best attacking work.
And, maybe, given his time again, Scott Barrett would opt to kick for the corner and not for goal with seven minutes remaining. Hindsight and all that, but the value of being in front with the clock ticking was surely worth the gamble.
“I was torn on that,” Barrett admitted after. “Could have gone to the corner. We were four points behind, and put ourselves in front.
“Equally we get back, and five minutes to go it is a one-shot play. Could have gone to the corner on reflection and gone for the win. I will reflect on that and learn if that is the right decision.”
And now that these All Blacks have tumbled to their first defeat in the Northern Hemisphere and their fourth of the season, it’s a little harder to get a gauge on how to contextualise their year.
This whole get-in-front, control the game, only to unravel and fray badly at the edges narrative is one that has become all too familiar this year, and of course was also the story when the All Blacks lost to France in the opening game of the World Cup last year – and then the final to South Africa.
It’s starting to feel like a problem they can’t really cure. They managed to see off England and Ireland, but was that blind luck, the laws of probability, or, given the way other results have gone, a case of those two not being quite as good as everyone thought they were?
Are the All Blacks a young team on the rise, going through the steep learning curve that all young teams have to endure on their way to the top?
Or are they plagued by a mental insecurity, or cursed with a learning defect that has made them recidivist offenders?
It may take a bit longer to be definitive about an answer to that, but for now, head coach Scott Robertson said: “Really proud of our effort and how hard we worked for each other.
“We created so much we didn’t finish and that is the tough part, we played some really good footy and there were moments that the game swung their way and we didn’t put enough scoreboard pressure on them in the end.”
