France v New Zealand, 8.15pm, Stade de France, Paris
It is baking hot in the City of Light, warm enough to make rugby union even harder than usual. The Stade de France can be a chilly, impersonal place but it felt like a giant concrete microwave as the local heroes eased through their final training session ahead of Friday night’s scene-setter against New Zealand, with temperatures of about 30 degrees expected for the opening ceremony.
By the time the first ball of the 2023 Rugby World Cup is kicked it might be fractionally cooler, but it is already clear this tournament will demand serious fitness and mental stamina. Extending the competition to seven weeks, ironically on player welfare grounds, has also added another dimension. By the time everything fully reaches the boil back in the same massive cauldron on October 28th, one or two sides will have wilted around the edges.
It is worth remembering, too, that South Africa lost their opening fixture of the 2019 tournament to New Zealand and ended up winning the competition. Something to cling to there, perhaps, if it all goes poire-shaped under the Friday-night lights for a France team who firmly believe they have the ability to create history by securing the Webb Ellis Cup for the first time.
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The other pertinent case study might be 2007, when France were beaten by an inspired Argentina on the opening night only to bounce back and upset New Zealand in the quarter-finals. There is a strong sense within this French squad, regardless, that they are ready for whatever lies ahead. Watching their consistently successful defence coach, Shaun Edwards, prowling the pristine grass, with a cap protecting his bare head and his collar turned up against the sun’s glare, was a further telltale sign that little has been left to chance.
In some ways France have been awaiting this specific game and this potentially life-changing tournament for even longer than the four years and 39 games that their head coach, Fabien Galthié, has been in charge. It was their 62-13 World Cup obliteration by the All Blacks in 2015 that convinced all concerned that some sort of oval-shaped revolution was required. Their greatest triumph, at least up to this point, has been reconnecting the national team with its public, and streamlining the previously strained relationship between the clubs and the French Federation.
It has allowed Les Bleus, as the great Serge Blanco put it this week, to “dream with their eyes wide open” ahead of this weekend’s grand départ. In the auditorium of the Stade de France on Thursday, the team manager, Raphaël Ibañez, also made no effort to shy away from the scale of the occasion. “For this generation, for this group, history has yet to be written.”
A spot of warm weather, in short, is not about to deter them. If it helps to have the world’s best player, Antoine Dupont – set to win his 50th cap – on their side, France are a team with an array of contrasting threats. Even in the absence of the injured outhalf Romain Ntamack they can select the gifted Matthieu Jalibert, while Cameron Woki in the second row is another exceptional athlete and a potential nightmare for every opposing lineout.
Of course life would be simpler with the influential Jonathan Danty fit and well in the midfield but, by the sound of it, the big man will be back before too long. Cyril Baille’s calf should also have healed by the tournament’s latter stages while, in Gabin Villière and Damian Penaud, France have two of the sharpest wings in the world to complement the pedigree heavyweights elsewhere.
All that now remains is to kick-start the party at the All Blacks’ expense. The New Zealand coach, Ian Foster, whisked out a pair of dark shades at the pregame press conference in mock honour of Galthié – “Fabien looks good in his glasses too ...” – but the slightly awkward joke could not disguise the fact his side badly need to rebound from their chastening Twickenham horror show against South Africa last month.
Foster, interestingly, is another keen student of opening game history, having been Steve Hansen’s assistant when the beaten Springboks subsequently enjoyed the last laugh in 2019. “I’m often asked what we’d do differently about 2019 and I said: ‘Just throw the first game,’” joked Foster. “We beat South Africa and they ended up having a different path to the final. You never know in tournaments.”
It has also not gone unnoticed in the All Black camp that they have won only one of the seven previous World Cups held outside New Zealand. “That shows you the size of the task,” said Foster. “You learn over history that you don’t just turn up and win, you’ve got to play well – and a lot of All Blacks teams haven’t achieved that. We want to walk out with shiny eyes, ready to play. Once the ref blows his whistle, let’s see what happens.”
Regardless of how France react to the prematch haka – “We’re happy for the opposition to respond however they want to respond,” said Foster – it seems certain to be some spectacle. This is Foster’s third World Cup and even he admits he has “never seen a build-up like this.” Thomas Castaignède, the former international who was a board member at Toulouse for four years and is now on the Ligue Nationale de Rugby board, has also watched a lot of French teams over the years and thinks this one is appreciably different. “In the past we maybe thought we were outsiders. We weren’t as confident of our potential. Previously we’ve had a sense of expectation going into big tournaments but this time we really believe in our team. We have lost the kind of fear we used to have.”
No fear, brilliant players, a nation on tenterhooks? It is a potentially irresistible mix, particularly when blended with a real sense of purpose. “We don’t want to disappoint our families and the French public,” says Woki, born up the road from the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. Even if France do falter initially, they are a team built to withstand all eventualities. – Guardian
