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Pressure, and the inability to handle it, once again cost the All Blacks dearly at a World Cup.
Hats off to France. The better team won the quarter-final in Cardiff, no question about it. And yet it was a curious match in that, after a strong first quarter,
I felt the All Blacks had the game under control.
Even in the final 10 minutes, after France had edged in front, I still felt the All Blacks could, and should, have won the match.
They didn't because tactically they were naive. The smart play would have been to ensure they kept things in the French half and worked a penalty. I suspect they ran out of ideas.
Having said that, I was impressed with France's discipline, and you haven't always been able to say that.
Defensively they worked their backsides off and clearly grew a thick coat of self belief as the second half wore on. Give them a sniff and there's no one better at making the passion work for them.
I've heard criticism of referee Wayne Barnes. There are suggestions the pass in the lead-up to the matchwinning try was marginally forward. Maybe it was, but some of those go your way, others don't. Blaming the referee would be a copout.
If I was to pick a critical stage of the match it was early in the second half.
I felt, sitting in the Millennium Stadium, that had the All Blacks scored first, having gone into the break 13-3 up, they would have gone on to win the match.
Instead, what had been a 13-0 lead became 13-all. And another point in coach Bernard Laporte's favour was the impact his replacements had. They were far more influential than the players Graham Henry brought on for the All Blacks.
You think of Sebastien Chabal, hooker Dimitri Szarzewski and first five-eighths Frederic Michalak. All made significant contributions, and Michalak did just what Laporte wanted by getting away to set up the match-winning try.
The one area the All Blacks were unlucky was losing Nick Evans just after he'd come on and made an immediate impact.
So what went wrong for the All Blacks? I felt the scrum was pretty good, the lineout perhaps better than many had expected and generally their ruck and maul work was okay.
So it comes back to pressure. Who could create it better, and who could withstand it. France, on both counts.
And for all the talk of the All Blacks' superior fitness being an important factor in the final quarter, I thought many of them appeared to have run out of petrol well before the end.
If you wanted a moment of desperation it was Luke McAlister's 50m dropped goal attempt a couple of minutes from the end. That was wishful thinking if ever I've seen it.
This is the All Blacks worst result in six tournaments and Henry and his fellow selectors will have to live with that.
There will be heavy flak over their rotation policy. Again, they will have to wear that, and there's plenty of New Zealanders who have saved hard for years for this trip. There were many very unhappy campers in Cardiff after the match.
I hope the country doesn't get silly about it. Much of what they have achieved over their four years had been impressive, but a personal wish would be that New Zealand rugby never has to endure another year like this.
Disruptions to the Super 14 and Air New Zealand Cup, the controversial reconditioning programme, players being given games off on orders from the top, selections designed to give players more test experience at the expense of settling on a strong, cohesive first choice XV all contributed to an unsatisfactory year.
Everything had to be sacrificed at the altar of the World Cup.
And what's more, imagine the next four years leading up to hosting the tournament. The burden of expectation will only grow heavier.
