France full-back Thomas Ramos scored 17 points to help his side defeat New Zealand 27-13 in the opening game of the Rugby World Cup played at the Stade de France on Friday evening.
Ramos kicked five penalties and a conversion at a sold-out Stade de France, helping the hosts, who are among the favourites to win the tournament, get off to a great start.
Mark Telea, a winger, scored two tries for the All Blacks, who have won the World Cup three times. With more than half an hour left in the game, the All Blacks were ahead 13–9, but they lost their first World Cup pool game ever in hot and humid Paris.
After a colourful opening ceremony, the sold-out Stade de France crowd and Les Bleus both gave the All Blacks’ Haka a lot of respect.
After captain Same Cane was ruled out, New Zealand made a late change. Tupou Vaa’i came off the bench, and Dalton Papali’i switched from blindside flanker to openside. No. 8 Ardie Savea took over as captain, leaving Ian Foster’s team short at the breakdown.
But it only took the All Blacks 93 seconds to put to rest any fears of a hangover from last month’s record loss to South Africa. When Beauden Barrett kicked the ball into the corner, Telea caught it and scored to silence the French fans.
After five minutes, Papali’i was pinned at a breakdown, and Ramos got a penalty to cut the score to 5-3.
After a crazy first quarter, Ramos put his team in front with a second penalty. Mo’unga answered with his own penalty to make the score 8-6.
The players got the first of two water breaks after 25 minutes, when the temperature had reached 29 degrees Celsius (84.3 degrees Fahrenheit).
Uini Atonio, a tight-head prop for France who was born in New Zealand, had the advantage at scrum time and won a penalty that Ramos kicked to make the score 9-8 at halftime. The players seemed happy to have a break because the weather was like a sauna.
Just three minutes into the second half, Telea scored his second goal of the game from a Savea chip kick in the opposite corner.
Mo’unga missed another conversion, and the home fans complained that Mo’unga’s pass to Telea was a forward pass, but New Zealand still had a 13-9 lead.
At scrum-half, Antoine Dupont and Aaron Smith were expected to go head-to-head. However, it was All Black Smith who came out on top, taking down Dupont twice with well-timed tackles just after 50 minutes.
Les Bleus came within inches of the New Zealand line with just under 30 minutes left to play, but Mo’unga’s perfect last-ditch tackle stopped Penaud from putting the ball down.
Two minutes later, Penaud scored his try when fly-half Matthieu Jalibert found him in the same corner. Ramos’s conversion made the score 16-13.
Two phases after the restart, winger Will Jordan was sent to the sin bin for taking out Ramos in the air, which made things much worse for New Zealand. This gave the home team a huge advantage.
Before Jordan came back from the sin bin, Ramos added a fourth penalty, making the score 19-13. This set up a very tense finish.
Jordan got into trouble soon after he came back for doing something similar, but referee Jaco Peyper only gave him a penalty, which Ramos gladly kicked to make the score 22-13 with seven minutes left.
When Arthur Vincent went over with two minutes left, it was the cherry on top of the cake for France. The home crowd went crazy in joy.
Photo by EPA/MOHAMMED BADRA
