Frenchman Antoine Dupont with the Dave Gallaher Cup after beating the All Blacks in Paris, 2024.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

France proved unpredictable as they beat New Zealand 30-29 in a superb and thrilling autumn test to end the All Blacks’ five-game winning streak.

Fabien Galthie’s men held on in a thrilling final to win thanks to tries from Romain Buros, Paul Boudehent, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and 15 points from the boot of Thomas Ramos.

This is France’s third consecutive victory against the All Blacks.

After back-to-back wins over Australia in the Rugby Championship, New Zealand have recently won against Japan, England and Ireland and are looking to avenge their loss to Les Bleus in the opening match of the Last year’s World Cup.

Tries from Peter Lakai and Cam Roigard with points scored by Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie, however, saw them narrowly fall short for their third consecutive defeat against France.

France played risky rugby in the early stages and were punished by New Zealand, who kept possession and tortured the home side, punishing a few avoidable errors to take a 14-3 lead.

New Zealand’s Tamaiti Williams in action against France, 2024.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

With an embarrassing defeat looming, the Blues slowed the pace, defended sternly and returned to being the clinical team that started last year’s World Cup as favourites, displaying brilliance and in composure when it mattered.

They are now unbeaten against the All Blacks since 2018, which marked the end of a dismal 14-game losing streak against the southern hemisphere.

France opened the scoring with a 50-yard penalty from Ramos, but New Zealand’s first counter-attack was sharp and after Ardie Savea bulldozed through the French defense, Lakai dived to give the he advantage to the visitors shortly after replacing Samipeni Finau, who was knocked out with a possible concussion.

Roigard intercepted a risky pass from Gregory Alldritt to touch down, doubling the visitors’ total thanks to Barrett’s conversion.

New Zealander Samipeni Finau is assisted from the field, France, 2024.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

France then showed itself to be more cautious, more patient and it paid off when Buros scored his first try after being served by Ramos after a long period of domination.

Barrett scored a penalty to give New Zealand a seven-point half-time lead.

France quickly equalized in the second half through Boudehent after a powerful maul crossed the line, and it was then their turn to score on a counter-attack after some fine defending, with Bielle-Biarrey grabbing their third try. team after recovering Ramos’ low kick. .

McKenzie and Ramos traded penalties before France became careless again, conceding two soft penalties which allowed New Zealand to reduce the gap to a single point.

Another penalty kept the Stade de France crowd on their feet, but the Blues defended fiercely on the final possession to secure victory and hope for a perfect autumn series before hosting Argentina on Friday.

New Zealand conclude their tour against Italy next weekend.

-Reuters