It is 20 years since New Zealand delivered a more compelling World Cup performance than that which illuminated Cardiff on Saturday night. The last time they treated the tournament to anything so spectacular was in Cape Town in the 1995 semi-final when England were steamrollered by Jonah Lomu. France were similarly powerless to stop Julian Savea and his friends running amok.
Move over Zinzan Brooke, Andrew Mehrtens, Walter Little and Frank Bunce. If Kieran Read, Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith keep inspiring the younger players around them to these collective heights the All Blacks will become the first team to win successive world titles.
Unless there is another untimely outbreak of Kiwi stomach trouble – as in 1995 – on the eve of this Saturday’s semi-final versus South Africa, it is a bold man who bets against them.
Of course France played their part, nose-diving to the heaviest Test defeat in their proud history. But amid the wreckage there was a general Gallic recognition that they had been skewered by something special. “There’s a world between our two teams, it’s really striking,” sighed Frédéric Michalak, whose international career ended when he limped off with a strained buttock muscle after 10 minutes. His departing coach, Philippe Saint-André, talked of the changing nature of the sport and the cocktail of technique, skill and explosive power that separates the best from the rest.
He probably had Savea in mind. And why not? The winger has 38 tries in 39 Tests, his hat-trick of scores having taken him past Lomu’s career haul of 37 in 63 Test appearances for New Zealand.
The 25-year-old is suitably modest – “I’ve always said that no one can come close to Jonah, he’s amazing” – but has registered eight tries at this tournament, level with the all-time high shared by Lomu and South Africa’s Bryan Habana. These are no ordinary statistics and nor was the skittling of Louis Picamoles, Brice Dulin and Rabah Slimani for one of the tournament’s more stunning individual tries just before half-time. “Road kill” was the word used by Mehrtens in the commentary box and he was not wrong. “We all know he’s a beast,” said Ben Smith, another consummate Kiwi talent. “You’ve just got to get the ball in his hands and he’s dangerous.”
The abiding memory, though, will be of Carter ghosting around the gain line, underlining his status as one of the all-time greats, and both forwards and backs performing their own more mundane tasks with intelligence and precision. If the fly-half’s back-handed offload to Savea for the winger’s first try was supreme in terms of timing and execution, some of the handling from unsung tight forwards such as Joe Moody and Charlie Faumuina was not far behind.
Small wonder the All Blacks’ assistant coach, Ian Foster, described it as “one of the best team performances I have seen for a while”. New Zealand had four tries by half-time, including another sharp-footed effort from Nehe Milner-Skudder, and scored 33 points without reply after the interval. The All Blacks’ mix of subtlety and sledgehammer is no accident. As the hooker, Dane Coles, put it: “We know what we’re capable of when we get things right.” The lock forward Brodie Retallick, whose chargedown of Michalak’s attempted clearance kick started the rout, also emphasised that practice makes perfect. “It’s the way the coaches want us to play and you get more comfortable the more you’re out there doing it.”
Those who reckon this plays into the hands of South Africa, who can proceed safe in the knowledge they will be distant underdogs, are overlooking the All Black mentality and Steve Hansen’s determination not to allow his players to get carried away. “We haven’t won the thing, so we can’t get too excited,” he said. “Even if we bring the same intensity and edge next week, it might not be good enough. They are a quality side.”
McCaw, similarly, has been around long enough to know that the fusillade of second-half tries from Jerome Kaino, Read and Tawera Kerr-Barlow will not count for much if the Springboks force them down a narrower cul-de-sac than the French were able to do. “I have learned the hard way that you don’t get ahead of yourself,” said the All Blacks’ redoubtable captain. “We have played a grand final tonight and we have another chance of a grand final next week. Then, if we do it right, we will get another chance after that.”
Dead as a French dodo, however, is any notion of the All Blacks having some kind of a mental hang-up whenever they hear La Marseillaise in Cardiff. McCaw was one of only two survivors of that grim 2007 experience and reckons that, in the long run, it did New Zealand rugby a favour. “I think it has shaped what has happened since … it’s about learning your lessons.” Now it is simply a matter of completing what they have started. Aside from Wyatt Crockett’s sore groin and Milner-Skudder’s painful shoulder, the All Blacks could not be in more ominous shape.
New Zealand B Smith; Milner-Skudder (Barrett, 41), C Smith (Williams, 52), Nonu, Savea; Carter, A Smith (Kerr-Barlow, 65); Crockett (Moody, 28), Coles (Mealamu, 61), O Franks (Faumuina, 52), Retallick, Whitelock, Kaino (Vito, 65), McCaw (capt; Cane, 69), Read.
Tries Retallick, Milner-Skudder, Savea 3, Kaino, Read, Kerr-Barlow 2. Cons Carter 7. Pen Carter.
France Spedding; Nakaitaci, Dumoulin (Bastareaud, 61), Fofana, Dulin; Michalak (Tales, 10), Parra (Kockott, 69); Ben Arous (Debaty, 61), Guirado (Szarzewski, 57), Slimani (Mas, 61), Pape (Nyanga, 49), Maestri, Dusautoir (capt), Le Roux, Picamoles (Chouly, 72).
Try Picamoles. Con Parra. Pens Spedding, Parra.
Sin-bin Picamoles 47.
Referee N Owens (Wal). Attendance 71,619.
