This time, no radical and daring attempt sealed victory. Instead, there was a French lineup that went from embarrassingly low in the first half to fully functional in the second.

There were flashes of French attacking genius, but the victory was mainly down to some fiercely determined defending and the superb kicking of Thomas Ramos, whose impeccable kicks made him my man of the match.

Sometimes it’s not your day

Looking back, the ‘small moment’ for New Zealand in Paris came in the 72nd minute when a foul play review officer, an Englishman called Ian Tempest, ruled that Ofa Tu’ungafasi was guilty for applying a header during a maul. The resulting penalty for France increased the lead to 30-26, one step too far for New Zealand.

I don’t think Tempest was right. And what Tu’ungafasi did was certainly not so egregious or dangerous that the fifth man on the refereeing totem pole deserved to have his say in front of the referee, Nika Amashukeli, the two assistant referees and the official of the televised match.

But nothing is going to change the outcome now, and instead of harping on that point, I’m going to take some good sportsmanship from Coach Robertson when he said, “We didn’t do any enough tonight. »

All Black of the match

A national cycling coach once described one of his bravest riders as “basically a ribcage with a huge heart beating inside”.

You could have said exactly the same thing about Ardie Savea in Paris. For 78 minutes, he ran with determination, tackled relentlessly and constantly fought to win the ball back at breakdowns.

Who knows where he then found the energy to move back 60 meters to thwart a potential try from French flying winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey, in the 79th minute? In a Test that was full of exciting moments, Savea’s rescue effort was a highlight.

Well done Cam Roigard

“Antoine Dupont was dominated for most of the first half,” are words I never imagined I would write. But this is what half-back Cam Roigard actually achieved in Paris.

Dupont, a once-in-a-generation superstar, found his feet as the match progressed, but for speed of delivery and quick thinking, the first 30 minutes belonged to 24-year-old Roigard. His career progression from now on will be fascinating.

Welcome aboard

All Blacks flanker Peter Lakai opened with a roar when he was replaced by a sadly groggy Samipeni Finau, scoring a try in the eighth minute. What was equally impressive was how Lakai then set about the hard work required to regroup the French.

At just 21 years old, Lakai is one of the hugely promising forwards to force his way into the All Black competition this year. He is definitely part of a new wave that will continue until the next World Cup in 2027.

Italian work remains to be done

It would be a mistake, which I don’t think the All Blacks will make, to treat next weekend’s test against Italy in Turin as a formality. It is true that only the Welsh, unfortunately incompetent, prevent Italy from finding themselves at the bottom of the Six Nations rankings. But it is worth bearing in mind that in February in Lille, only a final missed conversion prevented Italy from achieving victory over France. You don’t draw at 13 against France if you’re easy to beat.

Hopefully keeping the All Blacks’ minds on track for the Italy game is a job that might well be tailor-made for a master motivator like Robertson.

Perhaps the stupidest rule ever

Paul Lewis was 100% right when he wrote that the new law prohibiting defenders from obstructing a player chasing a high kick would have unintended consequences.

Under the new rule, Codie Taylor was penalized in Paris for failing to move out of the way of a French pursuer. Taylor had not deviated in the direction of the Frenchman. In fact, unless Taylor had (a) eyes in the back of his head or (b) some magical power that allowed him to dematerialize at will, he couldn’t have gotten out of the way. This makes the proposition of dropping hopeful bombs on opposition territory much more attractive.

It also reminds us that a new World Rugby regime aimed at making the game more attacking and more attractive to watch, with more running and less kicking, cannot come soon enough.