With the RWC just around the corner, we thought it would be fun to look back during the next few weeks at some of the classic matches seen at the World Cup over the years. This video contains highlights from the France versus New Zealand semi-final encounter played at Twickenham, England in 1999. We’d love to hear your recollections of this match.
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swifty said | July 31st 2007 @ 12:46am | Report comment
I remember hearing the result on the radio on the way to work the next day and assuming that the newsreader got it round the wrong way. i had never even considered that france might win. only saw the whole game a few years later.
Matt Rowley said | July 31st 2007 @ 1:14am | Report comment
I had the privilege of being at this game – the most amazing game of rugby in terms of a crowd lifting a team that I’ve ever seen. All of the neutrals got behind France – even the English.
What’s interesting watching this again is that the AB strengths and weaknesses, and thus the game plan to beat them, hasn’t changed all that much. I’d forgotten what a good AB team it was that lost this game by such a margin.
Monty String said | July 31st 2007 @ 8:15am | Report comment
Jonah looks like he’s playing against a bunch of high schoolers. It’s not just his height and weight, it’s his speed and his lateral movement. His poor health was a huge loss to NZ and world rugby. Had he stayed healthy, he would’ve rewritten the record books as a winger, and probably could have been great as a converted No 8 when he lost a step. And oh, don’t the Kiwis wish they had somebody as good as Jeff Wilson at 15 this year.
Incidentally, Domenici made the current French squad. He’s still a flyer.
Jerry said | July 31st 2007 @ 8:24am | Report comment
Ahh, what I remember about this game was that I woke up at 3 in the morning and then went to bed really annoyed and had to wake up at 9am for an exam for my law degree. Not the best preparation.
Matt said | July 31st 2007 @ 10:40am | Report comment
My recollection of the game was waiting for the All Blacks to deliver the killer blow but it never coming…It was looking ridiculously easy for a time then something snapped…
The French just got better and if there was ever a more graphic illustration of the French at their irresistable best this is surely it (actually bracket that with the ’87 semi as well).
I guess this game show how a form team can have an off day (or a off half hour) and lose a seemingly unloseable match and the cup. No matter how well you think you’re going it any team can jump out of the ground and surprise you.
I was actually talking to Marty Roebuck the other day about the ’91 quarter final against Ireland. I commented that my memories were that we were cruising but Ireland just managed to keep within range and then the Hamilton try came and our world turned upside down. Just another illustration of hour a seemingly safe game can go wrong…
Paul W said | July 31st 2007 @ 11:30am | Report comment
Oh great stuff, on the eve of the latest campaign to win a trophy that’s eluded NZ for 20 years, lets rewatch this game and perhaps the 1991 and 2003 losses to the Wallabies or the loss to the ‘boks in ’95! I’d rather just pull my toenails out with a jackhammer thanks…
http://backin15.blogspot.com/2006/11/best-team-one-year-out.html
Stu said | July 31st 2007 @ 1:08pm | Report comment
I’d forgotten just how devastating Jonah Lomu could be! What a powehouse! He was like a bowling ball running down the left win in the 95 semi versus England and in this one – It is a real shame that he got so ill.
I remember in the mid-late 90′s the big question in the bledisloe matches was always how can we stop Lomu.
Jason said | July 31st 2007 @ 5:10pm | Report comment
I went to the first semi the day before with my Australian ex-wife. We were bigging it up at the end saying “See you guys in the final” to her because it was a foregone conclusion, wasn’t it? Let me tell you, it was like a funeral after the All Blacks loss. I was so gutted I just walked back from Twickenham to the tube in Richmond so I didn’t have to talk to anybody (about an 1 hour in the October cold). The next day I stood at the tube on the way to work and thought “If I jump in front of this train it wouldn’t matter” It was the lowest point of my life…
The worst was going to see the All Blacks playing in Dublin the next year. All of a sudden they were behind again and I thought “No way, don’t do this to me” Thank goodness they got a spine and pulled through.
It is tragic I know, but as a Kiwi (especially living away from NZ) the All Blacks take an importance all out of proportion to what a sports team should.
mcxd said | July 31st 2007 @ 6:10pm | Report comment
Cant tell you much about the pain of that All black loss, im a Wallabies fan, but i will say the one thing that was devastating was Jonah Lomu running with the ball in hand !
Chris Beck said | August 1st 2007 @ 12:31pm | Report comment
With Lomu in that sort of form, how did they ever manage to lose a match? Just get him the ball. Anywhere. Holy mackerel.
He’d have been something to watch had he ever played in the NFL.