All Blacks struggle past France

New Zealand enacted a vague revenge for their shock defeat at the hands of France last week, beating the tourists 14-10 in a rain-soaked Wellington.

New Zealand came into the game desperate to atone for last week's uncharacteristic errors.  They had as passionate a crowd backing them as could be and two key players back in the mix to help them on their way.

But a south-wester blew up before kick-off, bringing a fine curtain of rain and bringing to an end any ambition either team had of being able to play cohesive running rugby.

The opening twenty minutes was poor enough to even dull the fervour of the crowd.  By the end of it we had had two missed penalty attempts at goal by Stephen Donald, a missed drop goal from Damien Traille and an awful lot of knock-ons.

We had also had as fine a piece of play-acting as will be found this side of the equator from Cedric Heymans, who milked a late hit from Ma'a Nonu for all it was worth and turning what should have been an All Black line-out 5m from the line into a French penalty.

But he who laughs last, laughs longest.  With New Zealand dominating territory and the French attempts to break out getting rarer and rarer, a home try looked inevitable.

It came after 23 minutes.  Following a good bust up the middle by Keven Mealamu, some quick possession had the French defence streaming over to the left-hand side and Joe Rokocoko headed off to the right.  Bizarrely, hooker William Servat managed to close him down, but Rokocoko's offload to Nonu inside saw the centre canter home in front of his home fans.

Stephen Donald missed his third of the night with the conversion, but that seemed not to matter as Mealamu once again inspired a move that culminated with Cory Jane going in at the corner among French bodies.

There then followed one of those ridiculous TMO conversations where neither referee nor TMO can make his mind up what should happen.  Replays showed Jane sliding over the line with enough of a glimpse of ball to suggest he had got it down, but with enough of Maxime Medard's arm underneath it to cast doubt on that.  The pair then slid into touch.  It could have been a try.  It could have been a 5m scrum to New Zealand.  What it absolutely was not was a 22m drop out to France.  The All Blacks were furious.

France fought their way back into it and carved out a pair of kicks for Julien Dupuy to have a go at goal, but one hit the post and the other flew well wide as time ticked on, then Donald landed a late penalty to make it 8-0 at the break.

The French started the second half with an ambush, when Jane left Heymans a little too much space on the right and the Toulouse flyer was away.  He tore down the left, stepping inside Joe Rokocoko before steaming the final 20 metres home for a scintillating 50m try.  Julien Dupuy's conversion brought his side to within a point.

But the half continued as the first had left off, with New Zealand dominating the territory and failing abjectly to convert their superiority into points.  Donald landed a penalty after 57 minutes but it was scant reward for their superior play.

As the benches emptied, New Zealand found that whatever they gained in individual skill they lost in team cohesion and the French began to spy a chance for another ambush.  Dimitri Yachvili screwed a kick horribly to the right and Brad Thorn got back to make a miracle ball-dislodging tackle on Vincent Clerc within diving distance of the line.

McAlister and Yachvili swapped penalties, the former's ground out of the French by heavy pressure, the latter's as a result of a silly offside at the restart.  New Zealand just could not get enough between themselves and the visitors.

Still the All Blacks hammered away and still nothing came.  The threat of a counter-attack or sucker-punch by France lurked, yet nothing came there either.  Piri Weepu booted the ball out triumphantly from the back of a scrum for the win, but New Zealand will have to be better than this in the Tri-Nations.

Man of the match:  Keven Mealamu delivered a storming performance from hooker, also helping in no small way with New Zealand's line-out dominance through some pinpoint throwing.

Villain of the match:  Cedric Heymans and Ma'a Nonu, the latter for the stupidity of following through with his shoulder even half-heartedly, the latter for his ludicrous parody of someone who had been late-tackled.  This is not football, gentlemen ...

Moment of the match:  Heymans' try.  A moment of individual magic that lit up a game floundering in the weather.

The scorers:

For New Zealand:
Try:  Nonu
Pens:  Donald 2, McAlister

For France:
Try:  Heymans
Con:  Dupuy
Pen:  Yachvili

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina (c), 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Josevata Rokocoko, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Tanerau Latimer, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements:  16 Aled de Malmanche, 17 John Afoa, 18 Bryn Evans, 19 George Whitelock, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Luke McAlister, 22 Isaia Toeava.

France:  15 Maxime Medard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Maxime Mermoz, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Cedric Heymans, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Romain Millo-Chluski, 4 Sebastien Chabal, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Fabien Barcella.
Replacements:  16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Thomas Domingo, 18 Remy Martin, 19 Damien Chouly, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 Florian Fritz, 22 Mathieu Bastareaud.

Referee:  Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Assistant referees:  George Clancy (Ireland), Nathan Pearce (Australia)
Television match official:  George Ayoub (Australia)
Assessor:  Andrew Cole (Australia)