France 12-39 New Zealand
New Zealand finished off the autumn internationals in spectacular fashion at the Stade de France
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Saturday, 28, Nov 2009 09:13
New Zealand finished off their autumn internationals with a comprehensive 39-12 victory over France at the Stade de France.
The visitors ran in five tries as they ended their tour of the Northern Hemisphere on a high having already beaten Wales and England.
France on the other hand looked a shadow of the side that beat South Africa a few weeks ago and only managed 12 points from the boot.
The hosts made seven changes to the side that faced Samoa with Damien Traille, Fabien Barcella and Fulgence Ouedrago among those returning.
New Zealand recalled Neemia Tialata, Jerome Kaino and Cory Jane to the side that beat England 19-6 at Twickenham.
Three first half tries from New Zealand gave them the lead at half-time but the boot of Julien Dupuy kept France just about in touching distance at 22-12.
The Kiwis added two more converted tries in the second half to take the game away from the French who never looked at the races.
A huge scrum from the French resulted in a third minute penalty which Dupuy stepped up and sent through the uprights.
The lead was short lived though as Sitiveni Sivivatu dummied and finished off a flowing move which Carter converted to make it 7-3 with seven minutes gone.
Two infringements by the New Zealand forwards allowed Dupuy to take his and France's tally up to nine as the hosts nudged ahead midway through the first half.
Again the lead was short lived though as the Kiwis grabbed their second try of the evening minutes later.
Jimmy Cowan and Sivivatu broke up a French attack and released Mils Muliaina who finished off a superb New Zealand counter attack.
Carter was wayward with his conversion attempt but atoned for the miss by slotting a penalty seven minutes later to put New Zealand 15-9 ahead.
The visitors were well in control now and added their third try seven minutes before the break.
Blindside flanker Jerome Kaino the next man to cross the whitewash with Carter inevitably adding the extras.
France needed to stop the rot and reduced the deficit to ten with three points via a drop goal from fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc four minutes before the break.
The hosts began the second half brightly and could have landed three more points but Dupuy pulled his shot at goal left.
Instead it was New Zealand who got the first points of the second half as the reliable boot of Carter added three more points to stretch the lead to thirteen.
Whilst Carter was bang in form with the boot Dupuy had lost his touch as another penalty drifted left of the uprights.
With 17 minutes remaining New Zealand killed the game off by adding their fourth try of the night.
Cory Jane collected a French clearance and chipped over the onrushing defence before collecting and going in under the posts. Carter's conversion took the score to 32-12.
The French defence was visibly tired and New Zealand capitalised by running in their fifth try with ten minutes to go.
Conrad Smith ghosted through a hole in the French defence to touch down. Carter added two more with the conversion.
New Zealand did lose Owen Franks for the last three minutes of the match when he was sin-binned for slowing down a ruck but it didn't blight what was a fantastic performance from the Kiwis as they ran out 39-12 winners.
Tom Powell