2025 All Blacks v France series

ACT Crusader

4- Tuipoluto
5- Holland
6- Finau
7- Savea
8- CLW

Gulp.

Shrink appointments in NZ will skyrocket!

Tim

@ACT-Crusader Only Tuipulotu should be starting from that mob. Papalii would add some starch to that garbage loose trio.

Darth Sader

CLW was ok, but Finau was pretty anonymous again tonight I thought, not sure he deserves another go

Tim

@Darth-Sader said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

CLW was ok

Yep, as a grafter he was fine. Carried okay. Looked like he was involved frequently. Fucking low bar. Still a lot better than the other clowns.

Tim

Are the coaches just spreadsheet maxing and don't realize that every other test coach can do that too?

ACT Crusader

CLW hit the tackle pretty hard and slowed down plenty of French ball. Thought he was very effective.

He even did a Kaino on Digny Ioane to one of the Frenchies.

If it was based on performance alone, they probably should’ve kept CLW on and replaced Ardie.

Tim

@ACT-Crusader I will watch a replay.

sparky

@Tim CLW did ok and, given where we're at, he deserves another outing.

But I am convinced he's going to be a significantly better Test 8 than Akira Ioane or Hoskins Sotutu? Not yet.

Mr Fish

I thought CLW was good - not sure he'll compete with the bigger loosies around the world but he did well in his first outing.

Narawa is only injury cover so would be surprised if he gets a run ahead of Reece, Clarke, Ioane or even potentially Love. Would like to see it though.

xman

If Tangitau was fit he probably would be in the squad. He’s got x-factor with speed and a step. Only question is his ability under the high ball. Defensively he should be fine.

sparky

Robertson confirms that Sevu Reece is out for next week.

But the press pack forgot to ask him if there were any other injury concerns. ‍️

mariner4life

@ACT-Crusader said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

CLW hit the tackle pretty hard and slowed down plenty of French ball. Thought he was very effective.

He even did a Kaino on Digny Ioane to one of the Frenchies.

If it was based on performance alone, they probably should’ve kept CLW on and replaced Ardie.

Completely agree. That was a good debut.

He did fade in the 2nd half but that's Completely normal on debut.

But he was very good in the first 40.

Tim

@Mr-Fish said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

I thought CLW was good

What did he do well? Some ok carrying, some hitting rucks, ineffectual tackling. If that is "good" for an AB 8 then we are in serious trouble.

That was France C.

brodean

I can't seriously say any of it was good except for Holland.

It was France C.

The rugby was helter skelter and lacked composure.

The width game isn't working so far . We're running around like headless chooks at a million miles an hour and then making bad decisions.

We turned the ball over 16 times to their 12. Given the amount of test experience we have compared to them, and that it was a home game, it was poor.

The support play was poor. It was more of the same we saw last year against France and South Africa.

Let's not forget we were playing a scratch team of noobs and journeymen and barely got the job done.

Bones

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

We turned the ball over 16 times to their 12

12 seems like a lot of times to turn over the ball for a team with fuck all possession and no BB/WJ.

brodean

@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

We turned the ball over 16 times to their 12

12 seems like a lot of times to turn over the ball for a team with fuck all possession and no BB/WJ.

27 points seems a lot of points for a team to concede when they have 62% possession.

That try Gulliard scored was soft as butter. They made a break and we can only defend 1 forward carry close to the line before he powers over.

Bones

@brodean agree wholeheartedly, although quite apart from turnovers.

Surprised we weren't more dominant in possession though, however when you take that stat into consideration it's not that bad (if you balance it out with rust Vs inexperience).

sparky

According to Chat GTP these were the key stats from the game:

Here are the key match stats from the All Blacks vs France test held on 5 July 2025 at Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin:

⸻

Match Overview
• Final Score: New Zealand 31–27 France
• Possession: All Blacks ~63%, France ~37% ()
• Territory: France controlled ~61%, with All Blacks around 39%

⸻

Phase Stats

Category New Zealand France
Carries 188 96 ()
Metres Gained ~450 m post-contact + 450 m carries ≈ 900 m ~208 m post-contact + fewer carries ≈ 300 m ()
Clean Breaks 9 4 ()
Defenders Beaten 270 129 ()
Offloads 97 49 ()
Passes 1,580 698 ()

⸻

️ Defence & Discipline
• Tackles Made: NZ 112, France 207
• Tackle Completion: NZ 90%, France 86%
• Turnovers Lost: NZ 15, France 13 ()
• Turnovers Won: NZ 4, France 6
• Penalties Conceded: NZ 9, France 13
• Scrum Success: NZ 75–100%, France 100%
• Lineout Success: NZ 91%, France 75%

⸻

🧠 Tactical Reflections
• Discipline & Territory: Despite dominating possession, the All Blacks were repeatedly pinned back due to France’s dominance in kicking and territory (61% vs 39%), plus superior discipline around the breakdown .
• Physicality: France’s aggressive defence resulted in significantly more dominant tackles and turnovers, keeping NZ under constant pressure ().

⸻

🧾 Summary
• The All Blacks enjoyed more possession (63%) and attempted nearly double the carries (188 vs 96), but were out-terrained (39% vs 61%) due to territorial kicks and penalties.
• France’s defence forced NZ into mistakes, winning turnovers and dominating scrum engagements (100% success).
• Ultimately, All Blacks’ greater ball-in-hand numbers (heavy carry and pass workload) helped them edge a narrow 31–27 victory — but it came under persistent French pressure.

nonpartizan

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@Bones said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

@brodean said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

We turned the ball over 16 times to their 12

12 seems like a lot of times to turn over the ball for a team with fuck all possession and no BB/WJ.

27 points seems a lot of points for a team to concede when they have 62% possession.

That try Gulliard scored was soft as butter. They made a break and we can only defend 1 forward carry close to the line before he powers over.

Indeed.

Contrast that with the French defence - they did a pretty good job covering and scrambling after line breaks.

Tbh 31 points and 3 disallowed tries is a pretty decent attacking output - it's conceding 27 with France having less than 40% of the ball that was the problem.

taniwharugby

@xman said in 2025 All Blacks v France series:

If Tangitau was fit he probably would be in the squad. He’s got x-factor with speed and a step. Only question is his ability under the high ball. Defensively he should be fine.

Well based on last night, there are questions under the high ball for all.the other backs, Inc Jordan, so it can't be a measure....

That said, you'd hope we can get much, much better in several aspects of the game.

The French kicking was excellent with great chases, conversely ours was largely aimless with inaccurate chases, we got very little out of our kicking, expecting this to be a major work on, get Dagg and Jane in.

The Silver Fern

2025 All Blacks v France series