No prizes for guessing who is the most sheepish man in New Zealand right now. Justin Marshall must be regretting his rant last week when he called France “disrespectful” for sending a squad stripped of many of its established players.
The team of Gallic no-hopers ran the All Blacks mighty close in Dunedin on Saturday, losing 31-27, and in the process silencing their Kiwi critics who had rubbished their reputations in the lead-up to the Test.
The All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan admitted his boys had been pushed to the wire by the French. “Even though there was no mud out there, we just found a way,” he reflected. “There was a lot of blood in the shed. There were some guys with cut eyes, and they were sore this morning.”
Marshall had made his comments about the composition of the French squad on a TV programme where one suspects the pundits are encouraged to be provocative.
“To be honest, I’m really disappointed,” fumed the former All Black scrum-half. “This is a side that has a very experience and then at the end of the day there’s 49% of the players have got no caps at all. So it’s a development team with a few senior players involved.”
Marshall added it’s “complete BS the way they’re treating this tour, the way the French always seem to have come up with excuses to not bring their top players”.
Another former All Black great, Jeff Wilson, echoed Marshall’s complaint, saying: “We know their best players aren’t here, they know their best players aren’t here… the part I’m disappointed about is if they genuinely want to win a World Cup, at some point, you want to give yourself the best opportunity to do that, you have to take on the top teams away from home.”
Scott Robertson might be tempted to ask some former All Blacks to button it between now and the second Test in case they give the tourists any more motivation.
Every word and every insult fired at the French was read and digested. Perhaps the Kiwis don’t know that Emilien Gailleton is half-English.
Asked if he had read the pre-match bad-mouthing, Gailleton said he had. “It hurts your pride to hear things like that in the media. So it’s true that we talked about it. We told ourselves not to let it get to us. On the contrary, we had to turn it into motivation and give ourselves energy.”
Speaking to the French television immediately after the final whistle, Mickael Guillard said “the local media doesn’t respect the 42 players here in New Zealand. All we get is ridicule. So we were eager to put in a big performance and show even if not all the best players are here, the ones who are have the ability to compete.”
Why aren’t the “best players” here? Some facts Marshall and co should take into account. Of the XV that started France’s first Six Nations match this year against Wales, six are injured: Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack, Peato Mauvaka, Uini Atonio, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Alexandre Roumat.
Four others played in last weekend’s Top 14 final between Toulouse and Bordeaux. It’s true Blair Kinghorn, who was on the winning Toulouse side, appeared for the Lions on Saturday, but a run-out against an under-strength NSW Waratahs is not the same as a Test match. Had the Lions been playing the Wallabies in the first Test on Saturday it is highly unlikely Kinghorn would have been picked.
Three of the Six Nations XV – Grégory Alldritt, Paul Boudehent and Jean-Baptiste – were left at home.
Two are in New Zealand and one of those, Theo Attissogbe, played on Saturday. The other is Toulouse centre Pierre-Louis Barassi, who is likely to feature in the second Test in Wellington.
Barassi was one of five players from the Top 14 final who arrived in New Zealand last Wednesday. The others are Pierre Bochaton, Joshua Brennan, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer and Nicolas Depoortère.
Depoortère, the powerful Bordeaux centre, made his Test debut in the 2024 Six Nations and would have more than two caps to his name but for a broken cheekbone that sidelined him for much of this season.
The comments of Marshall and Wilson were all the more misjudged considering a fortnight ago this young French team beat England at Twickenham. The hosts fielded a XV that contained 10 of the team which hammered the Pumas 35-12 in Argentina on Saturday. Yet they were beaten by France.
It was a result that underlined the strength in depth in French rugby. Frankly, on current form Alldritt will struggle to win back his place in the starting line-up and the same goes for Boudehent and Ntamack.
Wilson can be sure France “genuinely” want to win the 2027 World Cup, which is why this tour (including the victory over England) is proving so illuminating for Fabien Galthie. The narrow defeat in Dunedin taught him much.
Twenty-year-old Attissogbe was outstanding. His two starts in the Six Nations were on the wing but against England and New Zealand he lined-up at full-back, and was impressive in attack and defence. Next season Galthie might want to keep Attissogbe at full-back and move Thomas Ramos to fly-half. Ntamack is increasingly injury-prone and Matthieu Jalibert is cursed by inconsistency.
The performance of the back-row of Alexandre Fischer, Mickaël Guillard and Killian Tixeront will also have delighted Galthie. France have some high-quality loose forwards but they are warriors of a certain age carrying many scars of battle. Charles Ollivion (who ruptured his knee ligaments in January) and Francois Cros are in their 30s, and Anthony Jelonch has missed most of the last two years after surgery on both knees.
Fischer was making his debut against the All Blacks and Tixeront was winning his second cap but they played liked seasoned internationals, unfazed by the ferocity of the occasion. Fischer put in 20 tackles, won two turnovers and made eight carries. The 24-year-old Guillard, in his 11th Test, was immense going forward, using his 122kg to drive over the gain line.
There’s a reason why the Top 14 is the world’s premier domestic league and that is because in physicality and intensity it is the closest to Test match rugby.
One of Marshall’s old adversaries from his playing days, Richard Dourthe, was asked what he thought of his remarks. “I’d like to say a quick hello to Justin Marshall because I think the All Blacks didn’t respect us,” said Dourthe. “It’s ridiculous to say we don’t respect New Zealand when you look at our championship.”
Perhaps Marshall should tune into the Top 14 more often.