Well, I think we can put the notion of a French World Cup hoodoo over the All Blacks to bed. That was sensational stuff: they started at a tempo unlike any we’ve seen in this World Cup – think of the Australian move for their second try against England sustained over 40 minutes. France were blown away, run down, torn apart and from then on it was far, far too easy for New Zealand.
They go through to play South Africa in next week’s semi-final after this record-breaking win. Personally I don’t fancy the Springboks’ chances after watching that.
Thanks for reading folks. Join me again tomorrow at midday for Ireland v Argentina, then Australia v Scotland after that. Bye!
Full-time: New Zealand 62-13 France
We have time for the scrum, but that’ll be it. France win it and, unsurprisingly, don’t fancy playing any more – Tales booting it dejectedly into the stands.
80 min Apologies, it was Carter who got back to that and he’s clutching his knee after being tackled by Spedding. Anyway, New Zealand win the lineout and spin it left. Nonu has it and goes cruising through a massive gap from halfway. He’s in for the try but, right on the line, knocks it on in the tackle from Spedding! He laughs.
79 min Nick Mullins informs us that this French effort is all in vain now. Still, at least they’re playing and Fofana jinks through a gap and kicks ahead for Spedding, but Ben Smith is back to cover and Savea boots it clear.
78 min Penalty France at the scrum and they clear to touch down the left, on their own 10 metre line. Mealmu pinches the lineout, but he turns it over immediately and France look to put width on it.
77 min The offload from SBW a couple of minutes ago, as well as the one from Moody to put Kerr-Barlow in for his second try, were stunning, by the way. They’re just commonplace this evening.
76 min ... who scoots away and chips ahead. The ball bounces kindly and he collects, but gets dragged down short. Nonu is up in support and if he’d passed inside to him it would have been a try, but he didn’t and the centre then knocked on at the ruck.
75 min Kockott makes a lovely break as France win the lineout on halfway and swerves up into the 22. It’s recycled, worked inside and instantly turned over. New Zealand look to run and SBW puts it out to Ben Smith.
74 min Penalty France right in front of the posts on the 22 as Cane goes offside. They decline to take the points and stick it in the corner, but Read steals it at the tail. Which is taking the piss, really.
73 min France are at least still trying to play – Bastareaud hammers into the line and spins out of a tackle to take it into the 22.
72 min This is hurting my hands now. New Zealand have nine tries. Picamoles off, Chouly on.
Conversion (Carter 72) New Zealand 62-13 France
Obviously.
Try! (Kerr-Barlow 71) New Zealand 60-13 France
Kerr-Barlow slips it through into the 22 for Savea to chase, but France recover and Read, of all people, runs it back. It’s recycled, the ball is moved far too quickly for me to keep up and Moody makes the break before offloading inside for Kerr-Barlow to nip under the posts from 30 metres.
69 min I’m struggling to keep up now. Parra and McCaw off, Kockott and Cane on. France go right from the restart and Nakaitaci, who has played well, goes searing up to the 10 metre line but when it’s recycled, Cane wins the turnover at the next ruck.
Try! (Kerr-Barlow 68 + Carter con) New Zealand 55-13 France
Pure rugby erotica. Nonu takes a short line from Carter and crashes through, offloading out the tackle for the replacement No9 to go over.
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66 min This is now the biggest ever winning margin in a World Cup quarter-final and New Zealand have the most tries. Kerr-Barlow is on for Aaron Smith.
Conversion (Carter 65) New Zealand 48-13 France
Carter completes the formalities.
Try! (Read 64) New Zealand 46-13 France
New Zealand go right and they’re making ground at will, it seems; France have been run off their feet. Read offloads to Faumuina wonderfully, the prop goes through the gap and gives the return pass out the tackle for Read to jog under the posts.
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63 min France win the lineout and Parra clears to near halfway as Slimani makes way for Mas, who becomes France’s most-capped ever prop.
62 min Picamoles takes a high kick from Tales, but he’s held up by McCaw and New Zealand get the scrum midway inside their own half. It’s solid, goes left Nonu and he fires an excellent touchfinder down into the 22.
61 min Ch-ch-ch-changes: Coles, Ben Arous and Dumoulin off; Mealamu, Debaty and Bastareaud on.
Try! (Savea 59 + Carter con) New Zealand 41-13 France
France are going nowhere, pinned back in their own half and Nakaitaci, once he does reach the halfway line, spills it. Carter simply passes it out to Savea and he has far too much pace for this shattered French defence. He goes right under the posts to complete his hat-trick.
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58 min From the lineout, Carter clears long and Nakaitaci runs it back. France simply can’t find a way around the New Zealand defenders, although Picamoles has now returned, which might help.
57 min Szarzewski comes on for Guirado. Free-kick at the scrum and Parra takes it quickly and goes sniffing across the field. There’s not much on, so Spedding finds touch with a grubber to touch inside the 22. There’s not much imagination in this French side any more.
56 min The scrum is a mess and Dusuautoir manages to get his hands on it. Alas, he does so before the ball was out and concedes a penalty. Carter finds touch down the left, near the 10 metre line but Read knocks it on at the lineout.
54 min Dulin chips it into the corner and they go for the short lineout. They look to get the maul going, but Whitelock has got his hands on the ball and, when it goes to ground, it’s a New Zealand scrum.
53 min Conrad Smith is also off, replaced by Sonny Bill Williams. France get a penalty from the restart as Nonu jumps nowhere near the ball, obstructing the kick chase. Spedding sends it to touch on the right in the 22 and France look to drive through the All Blacks in the tight. Another penalty, against Retallick, for not releasing his man.
52 min That offload was Owen Franks’ last action, as he’s replaced by Charlie Faumuina. Carter’s conversion from near the touchline just fades away.
Try! (Kaino 50) New Zealand 34-13 France
Again New Zealand get width on it from the restart and Franks offloads beautifully to Conrad Smith, who matches that with a pass out to his namesake Ben. The wing is dragged down but it comes left again and it’s Kaino out on the left wing who canters over.
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49 min So close to another try as Dulin dithers and Ben Smith charges down his clearance. The ball crosses the dead ball line before he can chase it down though.
48 min Aaron Smith goes high from the maul and Ben Smith is under it yet again. Nyanga has replaced Pape for France and he’s quickly into action as he and Le Roux knock Franks backwards with a mighty double tackle.
47 min Carter clears up to halfway on the right. The way Owens handled that incident probably just earned him the World Cup final.
It’s not a punch, according to the TMO or Owens, but a push in the face with a clenched fist. The penalty is reversed and Picamoles gets the yellow card. Stupid, that, from the hitherto impressive No8 as he costs his team a very good position.
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There’s a big melee that ended up with McCaw sprawled on the floor. Looks like there was a punch to the jaw from Picamoles while he was already down. Not much of one, but this should be a yellow.
46 min France try to set the driving maul with Guirado carrying from the back. It’s a powerful drive and it wins the penalty as McCaw comes in from the wrong side.
46 min Guirado’s throw isn’t straight, but as Coles wasn’t in position Owens orders the lineout to be retaken.
45 min This is better from France and Spedding spots a gap behind the defence, grubbering into it and only some very sharp work from Aaron Smith stops him regathering. The scrum-half gathers and Barrett clears to the 22.
44 min Brilliant again from Retallick, stealing the lineout and Savea crashes into Tales – the fly-half going for the tackle round the shoulders and not coming out of it well. Carter clears to halfway.
43 min La Marsellaise rings out around Cardiff as Fofana steps off his right foot, round the corner and makes a lovely break to take France into the 22. On they go, right they go and Dumoulin carries up to within 10, but a couple of phases later McCaw gets the better of Slimani at the breakdown and wins the turnover. Barrett clears to the 22.
42 min France go left, again there’s no space, so Dulin slides his kick down the left and into touch just outside the 22. Read takes the lineout and Carter completes the clearance. France will go from deep.
41 min Dan Carter is also having his knee looked at. Tales restarts and barely gets it over the 10 metre line, but it’s a lovely kick that Le Roux gathers. France send it left to Ben Arous, who gets clattered by Retallick and France are going backwards.
Half-time change: Barrett is on for the injured Milner-Skudder. He’ll go to full-back, Ben Smith to the wing.
David Griffiths is at once right and desperately clinging to hope: “Actually, Savea’s 2nd try was more like Lomu’s in 1999 that put NZ 24-10 up; only for France to win at an insouciant canter.”
James Galloway is remembering 1999, I guess, when France lost their first-choice No10 to injury and, well: “Whether the All Blacks look good or not, surely the French have got them right where they want them? Yeah, probably not.”
Meanwhile Robin Hazlehurst is back: “Matt Dony is right apart from pointing out that the All Blacks were crap in the group but still scored about eight effing tries per match. When they were crap. And now they’ve woken up. I blame Australia. Did they really really need to rile New Zealand by beating them in the summer? Now everyone’s paying. Spectacular though.”
Craig Trainor, on the other hand, is simply full of admiration: “The magnificent footwork of Milner-Skudder on one wing and the power of Savea on the other. Conrad Smith and and Nonu in the centre with Sonny-Bill to come on. This could get very bad for France.”
Matt Dony, freshly recovered from the emotional scars of Wales’s defeat, writes: “New Zealand are ridiculous. After looking laboured against Georgia and much of the game against Namibia, they suddenly look fantastic as soon as they come up against a genuine contender. After the talk about whether France were playing mind games, maybe it’s the All Blacks that were lulling us in to a false sense of security.”
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Half-time: New Zealand 29-13 France
That was terrifying. As good as I’ve seen from the All Blacks in a long time.
40 min Carter’s conversion is narrowly off to the left. That finish from Savea was eerily reminiscent of the 1995 semi-final and aptly, takes Savea level with Lomu on 37 Test tries.
Try! (Savea 38) New Zealand 29-13 France
An exchange of kicks and Ben Smith outdoes Picamoles to win the aerial challenge. Left they go quickly and Aaron Smith gets a lovely pass out to Retallick. Savea holds his line and receives it close to the touchline then, Lomu-esque brushes off three tackles to smash into the corner!
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37 min There was a lucky bounce for Picamoles there, as it went up over Le Roux’s head, but that was astonishing power. The restart is taken brilliantly by Whitelock and they go left, but Carter’s cross kick is well claimed by Spedding.
Conversion (Parra 37) New Zealand 24-13 France
Parra chips it over and this game has a faint sign of life.
Try! (Picamoles 36) News Zealand 24-11 France
Nakaitaci runs head on into Savea and they’ll need to check the foundations of the stadium after that. The Frenchman is put to ground but they still have it and, more importantly, they’re gaining ground. Picamoles takes it, hitting the line from deep and he smashes the Kiwi defence aside. He bounces over the line and France have their try!
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35 min France desperately need a score before the break, or you can see them getting blown away in the second. New Zealand are running them ragged and they’re not letting them over the gain line here.
34 min “NZ sluggish in the group stage, they said?” asks Mark Turner. “This is awesome.” Well yes, we did, and they were. And yes, this is. Picamoles, France’s best player, comes off the back of the scrum and sears up to halfway, before France sling it nicely right to get up to the 22.
33 min Remarkably, this is the first scrum.
32 min Picamoles pinches it at the breakdown for France and carries up to the 22. Left they go and Dumoulin straightens, but there’s no way through so Pape carries it on. He looks for the offload but it goes loose and it’s Conrad Smith who goes speeding away on the counter. Left to Savea, who bounces off one tackle before going to ground, then Carter switches direction with the cross kick. Coles is under it but knocks on.
Conversion (Carter 31) New Zealand 24-6 France
Stick a fork in this one.
Try! (Savea 29) New Zealand 22-6 France
Fresh from giving away the penalty, Crockett goes off to be replaced by Joe Moody. Groin injury apparently. New Zealand steal the lineout and quickly get it left. Franks draws his man, gives it to Carter and the No10 fends off Pape, before throwing a glorious offload out the back of the hand as Nakaitaci looks to make the tackle. Savea goes round and under the sticks for his 36th All Black try.
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28 min Spedding uses his absurd boot to find touch from under his own sticks, just over the 10 metre line.
27 min Carter finds touch inside the 22 on the right and Coles finds Read with the throw. The driving maul takes it to within 10 and they swing it left infield to Owen Franks, but Crockett is penalised for diving off his feet.
26 min Kaino is at the centre of a powerful drive from the restart that takes it out of the 22. Aaron Smith sends it up and Picamoles claims and offloads to Dulin, but he’s swallowed up just inside his own half by a plethora of black shirts and holds on.
Conversion (Carter 25) New Zealand 17-6 France
Carter gives his side some breathing space, curling his kick over from out wide.
Stunning try! (Milner-Skudder 23) New Zealand 15-6 France
Back to Carter and his very, very lazy drop goal is charged down by Guirado. He took an age over that kick and the result is that New Zealand have been sent all the way back to halfway. Back they come though and the ball is sent wide to Milner-Skudder. There doesn’t look to be anything on but, from 40 metres, he steps inside and slips away from Spedding, before speeding to the line!
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22 min Carter’s touchfinder goes down the left, 25 metres out from the French line. It’s taken in by Retallick and New Zealand set themselves up to pick and go.
21 min Tales stabs a low kick through and France’s chase is good, wrapping up Milner-Skudder, but Guirado has his hands where they shouldn’t be.
20 min New Zealand go through the hands from the lineout, but Nonu is hammered by Dusautoir and the kick is straight to Dulin, who set up Spedding for the barrelling run to halfway.
19 min Not much going on for New Zealand, so Nonu grubbers ahead into touch on the left, just over the 10 metre line. Pape wins it and Parra puts it up, for Nakaitaci to win it brilliantly by outjumping Savea. Left it goes and Picamoles goes on one of his typically powerful drives down the left, but he’s dragged into touch.
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18 min Carter’s drop out bounces off Dulin into the grateful hands of Read. At the breakdown Smith box kicks ahead to Spedding, who returns long into touch. Milner-Skudder takes it quickly though and goes scuttling across the pitch.
17 min Ah, this is a poor miss from the 22, 15 metres in. Parra hooks it right and the All Blacks escape.
16 min Read jumps highest and wins the restart, but the ball goes loose from Ben Smith and France hack it ahead. Nakaitaci chases down the right flank and gathers it before offloading inside to Fofana. No idea how that ball stayed in French hands but it does and, to compound matters, New Zealand are offside again.
Penalty (Parra 15) New Zealand 10-6 France
Apparently Michalak was hurt at the ruck before the kick, thus ending the battle of the fly-halves my mum has a disturbing thing for. In his absence, Parra slots the kick from in front of the posts 30 metres out.
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13 min The restart is tapped back on the French side and red shirts – France are in red, by the way – come flooding forwards. They spread it left and Fofana looks to step through the line, but he’s stopped. We go back for a penalty though for both McCaw and Kaino going offside.
Conversion (Carter 12) New Zealand 10-3 France
From wide on the left, Carter pops over the extras as Michalak disappears down the tunnel very gingerly.
This isn’t good. Michalak looks to have done himself a mischief in attempting that clearance and he’s not going to be able to continue. Tales comes on.
Try! (Retallick 11) New Zealand 8-3 France
France go through the hands midway inside their own half from the restart and Spedding looks to get round the outside of Conrad Smith. No dice, so they reset, but Michalak’s clearance is laboured and Retallick charges it down! It sits up for him just outside the 22 and he canters over unchallenged!
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Penalty (Spedding 9) New Zealand 3-3 France
There are few other players at the World Cup who would fancy this. Spedding though sends a howitzer sailing through via the right-hand post.
8 min Michalak restarts and New Zealand go through the hands across the 22, before Carter clears down the throat of Spedding. He comes back with a typically muscular run up over the 10 metre line and Retallick is penalised for hands in the ruck. Spedding will go for goal from 56 metres or so.
Penalty (Carter 7) New Zealand 3-0 France
From 39 metres, near-as-damn-it in front, Carter strokes it twix the posts.
6 min Penalty against Dusautoir after Savea takes it into contact, as the French captain was holding on to Aaron Smith’s legs. New Zealand will be thankful for that, as Fofana had picked it up and was away from 60 metres.
5 min Left they go but Le Roux gets stuck in at the breakdown and wins the ball back for France. They sling it left, but Dulin is caught so Parra box kicks clear. Milner-Skudder claims it and keeps the ball in play very well.
4 min Right through the hands now into the hands of Milner Skudder, but he’s dragged into touch. There could be a problem for France as Nyanga is warming up, Maestri hurt. The lineout on the 22 is stolen by New Zealand and here they go again.
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3 min The drop out is slapped back to All Black hands and shipped left, where Carter straightens and goes through, but he’s well dragged down. Still, New Zealand retain possession.
2 min This is a ferocious start from the All Blacks and they go back and forth across the field again, getting up to within five. It comes right again to Carter and he grubbers into a gap, but it’s too close to Dumoulin who shepherds it over the dead ball line.
Peeep! Nigel Owens, who I was talking to via text yesterday (sorry for the name drop) blows his whistle and Carter’s short kick is taken by Le Roux. It’s quickly turned over though and they spin it left, then right, looking for space over the 10 metre line. Left again and Nonu shrugs off a couple of ordinary tackles to get into the 22.
France’s Haka response: they just stood there, in their allotted position 10 metres behind the halfway line, and smiled. I’m going out on a limb and saying the response to the Haka means diddly squat.
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American readers: this will be worth a watch.
@DanLucas86 Allez les Bleus. Want to tell readers I'm going on CNN International at 11.15pm your time to talk #RWC2015? No, obvs. But still.
— Martin Pengelly (@MartinPengelly) October 17, 2015
La Marsellaise is, as ever, fantastic. The crowd in Cardiff seems pretty heavily pro-France.
The players are out. The atmosphere at the Millennium Stadium is – as you probably don’t need me to tell you given that it has been for the entirety of this World Cup – is quite thrilling. We open with the New Zealand anthem.
Predictions? I’m going with New Zealand by 15.
@DanLucas86 a brilliant bruising battle ahead if the good Fra show up. A super clinical NZ performance & it'll be goodnight Vienna 4 France
— John McEnerney (@MackerOnTheMed) October 17, 2015
It’s worth mentioning that the winner of this will play South Africa in the first semi-final, at Twickenham next Saturday. The loser, obviously, goes home.
“Dear Dan,” begins Robert Wilson. “No one need worry about general French reaction to possible defeat. As an Irishman in Paris, I’ve spent the week being fulsomely congratulated, though there was some feeling that the victory margin should have been greater. They loathe Saint-André. When the French turn against a coach, they don’t stop for coffee along the way. Ask Raymond Domenech. The only way a defeat would disappoint would be if it were close.”
Pre-match musical interlude
Carrying on from the last match:
Essential pre-match reading
It took me a good while to come up with that preamble, briefly documenting the history of these two sides at the World Cup. Looks like I need not have bothered, given the exemplary work of James Riach, Gerard Meagher and Dom Fifield right here. It’s well worth spending some time with.
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My ice hockey knowledge is not the best. So I stand corrected here.
@DanLucas86 USA v USSR hockey was one game. Hockey's comparison is Canada/Russia, or Canada/US.
— Jesse Linklater (@jesselinklater) October 17, 2015
Well. You can probably tell I wrote that preamble a couple of days ago, given my failure to mention the reports of a French mutiny against Philippe Saint-Andre. But is that all an elaborate hoax, wonders Paul Rees.
Preamble
Evening, folks. Every team sport with a World Cup or major international championship has a fixture that, when it crops up, sends a shiver down the spine just to consider it. India v Pakistan or England v Australia in cricket, Brazil v Argentina or Germany v Holland in football. The USA v Russia in Olympic ice hockey. Australia v New Zealand in rugby league. And perhaps the most exciting of them all: the Rugby World Cup’s New Zealand v France.
This is the eighth edition of the tournament and the sixth in which these two sides have met. They contested the first ever final in 1987 when France, seemingly knackered after stunning Australia in the semi, were eventually brushed aside by the Grant Fox-inspired All Blacks. They then spent a couple of tournaments apart, before the 1999 semi-final, one of the all-time great matches; before Japan’s incredible win over South Africa, it had few challengers for that title. Jonah Lomu and New Zealand blew France away initially, taking a 24-10 lead before France launched their stunning comeback, with Christoph Lamaison’s flawless kicking combined with relentless flair, power and skill from the likes of Emile Ntamack, Philippe Bernat-Salles and Christoph Dominici helping the French crush Kiwi hopes with a 42-33 win.
The teams met again in 2003, in a largely forgettable third-placed play-off (a match so forgettable I had to look up what happened). New Zealand thrashed the demoralised French by 40 points to 13, but the following tournament brought another classic. An official review by the All Blacks into their 20-18 quarter-final defeat essentially blamed the referee, Wayne Barnes, for missing a forward pass in the build-up to a French try right here on this very ground. While controversy reigned in New Zealand, the rest of the world was awed by the performance of the French captain, Thierry Dusautoir, who made a record 38 of his team’s 200+ tackles and scored a try to boot. Really, World Rugby has missed the chance to pull off the greatest troll move in rugby history by not having Barnes officiate back at the Millennium Stadium tonight.
Graham Henry was the New Zealand coach to oversee that defeat and, in its wake, calls for his dismissal were loud and widespread across the two islands. They were ignored though and rightly so, as it turned out, as Henry guided the team to a double success over the French in 2011. The pool match was something of a non-contest, with the All Blacks smashing Les Bleus 37-17. France would go on to lose again in the pool, to Tonga, but scraped through thanks to bonus points and indeed went on to the final from there. It’s a tight call between the 2011 French side and England of 2007 for the title of worst finalist in World Cup history, but once they got there a new France turned up. New Zealand won the final by a single point but France, again inspired by Dusautoir, were the better team in that individual match and can feel seriously aggrieved by Craig Joubert’s refereeing.
France have only beaten New Zealand once since 2007, a surprise 27-22 win in Dunedin in 2009 and, going on 2015 form, few people would confidently back them tonight. New Zealand have had it easy since their opening win over Argentina and haven’t amazed us with their rugby yet: Steve Hansen’s chopping and changing of his lineup in routine wins hasn’t helped with cohesiveness and they have gone three weeks without a proper test. France on the other hand had a more helpful schedule: they got a comfortable win over Italy out the way before building up to the final pool game with Ireland, but they looked undercooked in that and, in the second half, were stifled by a strong Irish performance that ensured they barely ever got out of their own half.
The best hope for France is that the very notion of this fixture spooks the All Blacks. It’s going to be fascinating to watch.
Kick-off is at 8pm BST. That’s 9pm in Paris, or 8am tomorrow in Auckland. The teams are:
New Zealand
Ben Smith; Nehe Milner-Skudder, Conrad Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Julian Savea; Dan Carter, Aaron Smith; Wyatt Crockett, Dane Coles, Owen Franks, Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Jerome Kaino, Richie McCaw (capt), Kieran Read.
Replacements: Keven Mealamu, Joe Moody, Charlie Faumuina, Victor Vito, Sam Cane, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Beauden Barrett, Sonny Bill Williams
France
Scott Spedding; Noa Nakaitaci, Alexandre Dumoulin, Wesley Fofana, Brice Dulin; Frederic Michalak, Morgan Parra; Eddy Ben Arous, Guilhem Guirado, Rabah Slimani, Pascal Pape, Yoann Maestri, Thierry Dusautoir (capt), Bernard Le Roux, Louis Picamoles.
Replacements: Dimitri Szarzewski, Vincent Debaty, Nicolas Mas, Damien Chouly, Yannick Nyanga, Rory Kockott, Remi Tales, Mathieu Bastareaud
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