The All Blacks delivered a much improved performance as they clinched an emphatic 43-17 triumph against France in their mid-year international in Wellington on Saturday.
After notching a narrow victory over Les Bleus in Dunedin last week, there was pressure on All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson and his troops but they were full value for this series-clinching win as they dominated for long periods and were more clinical in their execution.
The All Blacks eventually outscored their visitors by six tries to two with Cam Roigard, Ardie Savea, Codie Taylor, Tupou Vaa’i, Will Jordan and Rieko Ioane all crossing the whitewash.
Their other points came via four conversions and a penalty from Beauden Barrett while Jordie Barrett also succeeded with a two-pointer off the kicking tee.
For France, Léo Barré and Joshua Brennan scored tries while Nolann Le Garrec added a conversion and a penalty, and Antoine Hastoy also converted a five-pointer.
The opening exchanges were evenly contested and after absorbing some early pressure from the visitors, the All Blacks opened the scoring in the eighth minute courtesy of a Barrett penalty after Nicolas Depoortère strayed offside on defence.
Five minutes later, the home side extended their lead when Roigard crossed for his try after some brilliance from the All Blacks forwards.
From a lineout just outside France’s 22, the hosts flummoxed the visitors with a move from the set-piece which looked like it was straight off the training ground.
After delivering his throw-in, hooker Taylor came charging around the lineout and made like he was going to take a pass from Christian Lio-Willie only for Savea and Roigard to break around the blindside and the former offloaded to his scrum-half, who cantered in for his score.
Midway through the half, New Zealand were reduced to 14 men when fly-half Barrett was yellow carded for deliberately knocking down a pass from Le Garrec deep inside the hosts’ 22.
Le Garrec slotted the resulting penalty which meant the All Blacks held a 10-3 lead by the 20th minute before Savea went over for another converted try off the back of a lineout drive deep inside Les Bleus territory.
France were then dealt a massive setback when Brennan was sent to the sin bin in the 28th minute for a dangerous tip tackle on Jordie Barrett and the rest of the half was dominated by the hosts, who scored two further tries during that period.
On the half hour-mark, Taylor dotted down in similar fashion to Savea after a strong lineout drive from the All Blacks, before Vaa’i rounded off a spectacular try after the ball went through several pairs of hands in the build-up.
That meant New Zealand had their tails up with the score 29-3 in their favour at half-time.
🇳🇿🇫🇷 ALL BLACKS HAMMER FRANCE IN WELLINGTON TO CLINCH THE SERIES!#NZLvFRA pic.twitter.com/33z6GO6zjb
— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) July 12, 2025
France needed a response and that came eight minutes after the restart when Barré crossed for their first try after running a superb line deep inside the All Blacks’ 22.
The All Blacks did not panic though and in the 56th minute Jordan rounded off in style after Billy Proctor was stopped just short of the try-line in the build-up.
And in the 62nd minute, Ioane got over for his five pointer in the left-hand corner, after running onto a well-timed pass from Jordie Barrett, before Brennan added some respectability to the final score for Les Bleus when he crashed over for his try in the game’s closing stages.
The teams
New Zealand: 15 Will Jordan, 14 Emoni Narawa, 13 Billy Proctor, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Christian Lio-Willie, 7 Ardie Savea (c), 6 Tupou Vaa’i, 5 Fabian Holland, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu, 3 Fletcher Newell, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot
Replacements: 16 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17 Ollie Norris, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19 Samipeni Finau, 20 Du’Plessis Kirifi, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Timoci Tavatavanawai, 23 Damian McKenzie
France: 15 Léo Barré, 14 Théo Attissogbe, 13 Nicolas Depoortère, 12 Pierre-Louis Barassi, 11 Émilien Gailleton, 10 Joris Segonds, 9 Nolann Le Garrec, 8 Esteban Abadie, 7 Jacobus Van Tonder, 6 Pierre Bochaton, 5 Matthias Halagahu, 4 Joshua Brennan, 3 Georges-Henri Colombe, 2 Gaëtan Barlot (c), 1 Baptiste Erdocio
Replacements: 16 Pierre Bourgarit, 17 Paul Mallez, 18 Régis Montagne, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Cameron Woki, 21 Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, 22 Thibault Daubagna, 23 Antoine Hastoy
Referee: Christophe Ridley (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Nic Berry (RA), Takehito Namekawa (JRFU)
TMO: Brett Cronan (RA)
FPRO: Damon Murphy (RA)
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