Rugby World Cup: Family delight after win from the heart

Children join in the French celebrations. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Fifteen minutes after the final whistle in their Rugby World Cup quarter final, as the French team walked a lap of sheer delight, a lone figure broke away from the group and set off across Eden Park.

For a couple of minutes, with a blond toddler perched in one arm, Imanol Harinordoquy, battered and bruised but with a contented smile in place, had the ground to himself.

He was in no hurry. It was the measured tread of the weary warrior returning from the battle. A euro for his thoughts at that moment.

While Harinordoquy made his solo, triumphant march, his teammates saluted their fans, who in turn roared their appreciation of the players who had turned their World Cup on its head over the previous 80 minutes.

Centre Aurelien Rougerie and replacement hooker Dimitri Szarzewski had children with them too on the long walk. For a few minutes it was a very family affair, in all senses.

Edith Piaf wafted across the park from the speakers. Allez les Bleus, and deservedly so.

Harinordoquy was man of the match for a towering performance, leaping to snaffle up and unders, winning lineouts, making hard metres off the back of the scrum, tackling resolutely.

He had played in the 2003 and 2007 semifinal losses to England. The hurt remained. Of Saturday's 22, Rougerie was there eight years ago with Harinordoquy; class wing Vincent Clerc and Harinordoquy's loose forward chums, captain Thierry Dusautoir and Julien Bonnaire, started in 2007; Dimitri Szarzewski and Jean-Baptiste Poux were on the bench that day too.

So there were some long memories to at least be partly erased at Eden Park but "let's keep our feet on the ground", he said. "This is the beginning, not the end."

Dusautoir and Bonnaire put in heroic stints as part of a formidable trio alongside Harinordoquy.

"We knew we had to put a lot of desire into our performance," Bonnaire said. "So we decided to play it simple. It was that desire that made the difference."

Heart, rather than head, had been the critical quality for the French, he said. "We were really disappointed for all the people who had saved a lot of money to come and watch and support us. We were also very disappointed for ourselves because we felt we had lied to ourselves and wanted to make up for our poor performances."

And Bonnaire made one other telling point. "We took pleasure out of the game. We enjoyed it. We hadn't done that so far in the cup."

And what a difference that made.