Sensational upset

'Les Bleus' blacken New Zealand's campaign

Click here for more on this story

Posted: Sunday October 31, 1999 02:17 PM

Christophe Lamaison celebrates his first half try in France's upset victory. Alex Livesey/Allsport

TWICKENHAM, England (CNN/SI) -- France answered its country's chants of "Allez Les Bleus" (Come on, France) against New Zealand by shocking the All Blacks 43-31 at Twickenham on Sunday in the biggest upset in World Cup history.

France will face Australia, which beat South Africa 27-21 in extra time Saturday.

The experts, including the bookmakers had favored the Kiwis 1-20 to beat the only European team left in the championship, especially after France lost to the All Blacks by a record 54-7 only four months ago. But Andrew Mehrtens, the All Blacks flyhalf, said Friday, "They're predictably unpredictable." Sunday he was proved correct.

France trailed at the interval 24-10 but, led by Christophe Lamaison, thundered back onto the field to dominate every aspect of the game and outscore New Zealand with three tries and seven accurate kicks in the second half.

Lamaison collected a full house of scores with a try, three conversions, two drop goals and three penalties for a person tally of 28 points. Wingers Chistophe Dominici and Phillipe Bernard-Salles and center Richard Dourthe also crossed the All Blacks line.

Jonah Lomu collected two more tries to take his Rugby World Cup record to 15 but was only joined by Jeff Wilson in the final minute.

Lamaison kicked the French ahead with a 40-meter penalty after only two minutes before Mehrtens hit the post and then missed another long range kick.

The All Blacks fly half finally find the target from close range in the ninth minute and gave his team the lead in the 18th minute with another kick.

It came after French fullback Xavier Garbajosa had been shown the yellow card for a professional foul, holding onto Jeff Wilson, after he had stopped the New Zealand fullback's charge to the line.

The French impressed with their enterprising play and the game came alight with two sensational tries in the space of four minutes, one for each team.

Collecting the ball near the halfway line on the left wing French winger Chistophe Dominici darted through a gap in the All Blacks defense and then went on a weaving run past three tacklers before Christian Cullen finally caught up with him and brought him down three meters short of the posts.

But the French recycled the ball quickly and had a double overlap on the right with Lamaison going over for the score.

His conversion gave the French a 10-6 lead but Mehrtens cut that to one point with a penalty.

Then came Lomu's amazing first score.

The 6-foot-5 (1.96 meter) winger had to stoop to take a very low pass but recovered to burst past his first two tacklers. Then five more Frenchmen arrived to try and stop the giant winger but Lomu managed to stay upright, shrug them all off and charge over the line to take his record of World Cup tries to 14 as the All Blacks led 14-10.

The French hit back again and Garbajosa, Dominici and Olivier Magne all went close to scoring tries. Magne appeared very unlucky when he raced down the right and kicked ahead and there was considerable doubt whether it was an Al Black who touched the ball first after it had crossed the line.

But the French began punishing themselves by giving away too many penalties - 12 against two by New Zealand in the first half and, although they were making more try scoring opportunities, they trailed 17-10 at half time after Mehrtens kicked his fourth penalty of the game.

Lomu's second try of the game came five minutes into the second half after Lamaison's kick ahead went straight to Wilson 40 meters from the line.

The fullback swapped three passes with the winger who then went on another trademark weaving run past four tacklers before crossing the line for his 24th try in 37 international appearances. Mehrtens kicked the conversion and the All Blacks led 24-10.

But the French wouldn't lie down.

Lamaison kicked two drop goals in the space of two minutes and then two penalties to cut the lead to two points with 25 minutes to go.

Two minutes later, scrum haf Fabien Galthie kicked ahead to the corner and the bounce eluded both Mehrtens and Raine Randell but went kindly for Dominici who gathered it and raced to the line for the second French try. Lamaison's conversion made it 29-22 to France.

That was turned into 36-24 when some great French forward play pushed the All Blacks back to within five meters of their tryline.

Lamaison got clean possession and kicked ahead and Richard Dourthe won the race to the ball ahead of Wilson and Rana Umaga. Lamaison again kicked the conversion and the French led by 12 points with 20 minutes to go.

Another try came six minutes from the end when Lamaison kicked ahead from deep in his own half and Magne and Bernard-Salles chased it. Magne kicked ahead again and Bernard-Salles got to the ball before Wilson. Lamaison again converted and the French led by 19 points.

Wilson crossed the French line in the final minute and Mehrtens converted for the final score of the game.

France

New Zealand

 

Related information
Stories
France vs. New Zealand Match Statistics Lomu undecided about future New Zealand: Words, deeds | Factfile France: Words, deeds | Factfile World Cup or three-horse race?
Multimedia
Visit Multimedia Central for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.