New Zealand 14 (8)
France 10 (0)
Brave France narrowly missed
out an historic series win after going down to the All
Blacks 14-10 in Wellington.
New Zealand put in a
vastly improved performance to
last week’s 27-22 loss at Dunedin,
but atrocious weather conditions hampered the spectacle at
the Westpac Stadium this morning.
Ma’Nonu’s 26th
minute try and a Luke Donald penalty gave the All Blacks an
8-0 half-time advantage, but France bounced back after the
break via a superb individual try from Cedric Heymans, who
beat four men down the left wing as he raced in from 40m.
Julien Dupuy slotted the conversion to reduce the arrears to
a single point but Donald and Luke McAlister both added
further penalties of the All Blacks as they held on for the
win.
Dupuy’s replacement
Dimitri Yachvili kicked a late penalty to give France hope,
but it wasn’t enough as ‘Les Bleus’ just fell short of their
first series win in New Zealand since 1994.
They did, however, take
the Dave Gallaher Cup by virtue of their five-point winning
margin in the Dunedin Test.
France will take great
confidence from the drawn series, especially after leaving
home with so many players absent injured (or resting), and
will now travel on for their one-off Test against Australia
in high spirits.
France scrum half
Dupuy, meanwhile, has been told he is
unlikely to be allowed to leave
Leicester Tigers this summer after all.
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The want-away No 9 had
been expected to complete a drawn-out switch to Stade
Francais, but his desire for a return to France could now be
thwarted by the Tigers’ inability to sign a suitable
replacement.
They had been tipped to
sign veteran Australian scrum-half Chris Whitaker from
Leinster, but the former Wallaby international has now
thrown those plans into disarray by announcing his
retirement.
That in turn has
scuppered Dupuy’s hopes of a move, with Leicester also
reportedly failing in their attempts to sign Northampton’s
Mark Robinson, Cardiff’s Jason Spice or Saracens’ former All
Black Justin Marshall. All three fitted the required
Leicester criteria – seasoned scrum-halves with ample of
experience – but no deal has yet been done.
Leicester coach Richard
Cockerill said the Tigers had done an “exhaustive” search,
but had come up empty handed thus far.
“We need a replacement, we have not got one, so that has
solved the problem,” he told the Leicester Mercury.
“We will make a call next week but, as I am going to make
the decision, I would say he will be here next season.”
The failure to sign a
suitable replacement is a major blow to Dupuy, 25, after he
had set his heart on a return to France to accommodate his
unsettled girlfriend. Stade Francais’ initial bid of
€100,000 was turned down, but a deal looked set to be
completed when they doubled their offer during the week.
But Cockerill said
getting enough cash for the highly regarded player was only
half of the equation. “Unless someone comes on the market
between now and next week – and we have made an exhaustive
search – it’s going to be difficult,” he added.
Simon Cohen, head of
operations for the Tigers, confirmed the dilemma. “Two
things had to drop into place,” he said. “Firstly, the
transfer fee had to be satisfactory enough for us to go into
the market place and buy a goal-kicker. Secondly, we had to
find the right fit to replace Julien. That fit was either a
scrum-half of Julien’s ability, or an older scrum-half who
would operate in a mentoring role in bringing through the
younger scrum-halves at the club.
