- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
France vs All Blacks: Rugby World Cup Final tonight (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
It all comes down to this. Eighty minutes of rugby stands between either the All Blacks or France reaching the pinnacle of the sport. Join us from 7.00pm AEDT for live scores and a minute-by-minute blog and find out who will lift the Webb Ellis Cup in the Rugby World Cup Final tonight at Eden Park.
Depending on how you look at it, it’s been a long seven weeks, four years, best part of a decade or 24 years for New Zealand fans starved of Rugby World Cup success.
Whichever way you look at it for the rugby-mad nation of four million, the waiting is almost over.
Despite tournament-ending injuries to key players, the All Blacks have been able to finally prove to the rugby world why it is they are regarded as the best every four years and avoid the infamous choking syndrome that has often blighted them.
With only a schizophrenic French team standing between them and victory many well-respected pundits see this as a procession, with Richie McCaw and his men simply needed to take the field to collect the Cup.
So is it that simple?
It certainly wasn’t so in 1999, when the French stormed back from 14 points down in the second half of the 1999 Rugby World Cup semi-final to stun one of the greatest All Blacks teams of all time 43-31.
Or in 2007 when Les Bleus ground the All Blacks down in front of a parochial home crowd to send the All Blacks packing in the quarter-final, beating the highly-fancied New Zealanders 20-18.
It’s a scenario New Zealand fans won’t even begin to contemplate.
Yet if there is any sign of nerves or hesitation from the favourites, their opponents will sense it and feed off it, and an upset will be on the cards.
Fortunately for both teams’ sets of fans and neutrals alike, there have been no further injuries to the teams that played last weekend, with both Graham Henry and Marc Lievremont naming unchanged starting XVs.
The only change to the All Blacks squad has been the inclusion of flanker Adam Thomson onto the bench, with Victor Vito cruelly making way.
For France, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Jean-Marc Doussain and Damien Traille have been recalled into the 22.
The two sides met in the group stages and after an evenly contested opening ten minutes, the French were completely steamrolled by the might of the All Blacks backline.
But there is one key factor that has changed from that evening: Dan Carter is no longer driving that offense.
The All Blacks made the Wallabies scrum look like schoolboys last Sunday night and in high-stakes rugby, the forward battle is often the key to winning the match.
And this could prove to be the difference tonight. If the French can negate the dominance of the All Blacks’ star-studded pack then an upset might become slightly possible.
If they cannot, then it could become very, very ugly indeed for them, and this one could be over very early.
This is it. A fantastic tournament that has enthralled us for seven weeks all comes down to this match. Simple as that. Can France shock the world, or will the wait finally be over for long-suffering All Blacks fans?
Dont miss this one. Join us from 7.00pm AEDT for every minute of this contest. We’ll have up-to-the-minute live scores and an interactive blog, so don’t hesitate to give us your predictions, thoughts on the action or general musings on the tournament below!
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.