My favourite game: France v New Zealand, 1999 Rugby World Cup
Underdogs turned the rugby world upside down to beat the odds-on All Blacks and create one of the greatest games in the history of the tournament
In these dark days the unscripted drama of live sport feels more important than ever. The second World Cup semi-final at Twickenham in 1999 seems like yesterday to me even though Émile Ntamack, France’s left-wing on that autumn day, now watches his son play for their country. No one in the stadium will ever forget it. At the end, and I kid you not, I turned round from my seat in the East stand press box and grown men were actually weeping.
Context is all. This wasn’t just an astonishing spectacle. It came, like so many French performances in World Cups, completely out of the blue. The All Blacks were so far ahead of everyone it wasn’t true. Jonah Lomu was in his pomp and their backline, with Christian Cullen, Tana Umaga and Jeff Wilson operating outside Andrew Mehrtens, were cutting other teams to shreds.
Earlier in the competition New Zealand cold-bloodedly scored 101 points against Italy in Huddersfield. They had been beaten in the final four years ago when Nelson Mandela was South Africa’s 16th man and they were going to make no mistakes this time.
France were their usual flaky but often brilliant selves and nobody was giving them a hope. This view was shared by the Guardian’s newly appointed rugby correspondent. “I’ll do Australia against South Africa, should be pretty good, and you can watch the All Blacks beat France,” the sage-like Robert Kitson told me during the week. (He may not have used those actual words but you have to allow me a little one-upmanship and smugness for this feature).
And so it came to pass. Rob watched the thrilling spectacle of Matt Burke kicking eight penalties against the holders while I, bless him, went to Twickenham 24 hours later to witness what Paul Simon might have called “a day of miracles and wonders”. My only regret is that the following weekend Australia beat a flat France, perhaps shattered after their semi-final efforts , in the dullest final ever.
All was going to the script as New Zealand ran up a 24-10 lead. A black tidal wave threatened to submerge France. Lomu powered through the tackles of Xavier Garbajosa, Philippe Bernat-Salles and Fabien Galthié as if they were so much dead wood in an autumn gale. The full-back Garbajosa later admitted that he had deliberately dived the wrong way to avoid the express train that was Lomu and who could blame him? Poor France, their Six Nations wooden spoon earlier that year was going to be followed by a humiliation witnessed by millions.
And then the rugby world was turned upside down. France scored 33 points without reply. Their fly-half Christophe Lamaison, only in the side because Thomas Castaignède was injured, kicked two drop-goals and two penalties. France were within touching distance. Fear gripped the All Blacks. Surely they couldn’t muck this one up? We were on the edge of our seats.
The scrum-half Galthie, now France’s head coach, kicked a teasing up-and-under down the left touchline. Christophe Dominici thundered after it and raced round Mehrtens to score. France were ahead. Pandemonium broke out. The French pack rumbled forwards.
By this time Lamaison could do nothing wrong. His chip bounced into the arms of Richard Dourthe, who scored another. With five minutes to go, though, New Zealand still had shots to fire. Mehrtens flung a pass to Umaga but the wing could not hold it and Lamaison kicked the ball from the French 22. Olivier Magne hacked it on into the New Zealand half and Bernat-Salles won the race with Wilson to plunge over.
There was no way back despite Wilson’s last-minute reply. Never before had the All Blacks conceded so many points in a World Cup game. I’ve been lucky enough to see two other remarkable World Cup games live, Fiji against Wales at Nantes in 2007 and Japan beating South Africa in Brighton in 2015 are up there, but nothing matches this.
When I got my breath back I phoned the Guardian sports desk. “I’ve just seen the greatest game in the history of the World Cup,” I said. “Yes, we know,” came the weary reply. (I was forgetting that everyone was watching on telly.) “That’s why we’ve cleared the front page.” Ah. Happy days.
- It was indeed an amazing game. Classic French flair and everything went their way.You grumble about Australia in the final against a “flat” France. Referee Andre Watson contributed to that with long stoppages.Also the All Blacks had told the Aussies that France we’re playing foul including eye gouging. John Eales was heard on the microphone saying he would take his players off the field if it wasn’t stopped.
- France dominated the All Blacks from the kickoff. Astonishingly, Ian Malins does not mention the first try, by Lamaison, that followed a devastating buildup by Benazzi and Dominici---that set the pattern for the match of the Tricolors attacking and the All Blacks scrambling to stay with them.Malins also fails to mention another crucial, and unsavory, feature of the match: the Tricolors' intimidation and constant infringing to put the All Blacks off their game. It was a deliberate and cynical tactic, and the French paid for that by conceding penalty after penalty---the only thing that kept the All Blacks in the game at all.True enough, the French players hardly tried to tackle the rampant Lomu, but he hardly figured in the game apart from those two awesome tries. At halftime the New Zealand television commentators knew the All Blacks were done for, despite their tenuous seven-point lead. Philip Leishman chortled about Franck Tournaire biting an All Black forward: "I know the French are romantic, but this is ridiculous." Fellow commentator Grant Fox wasn't at all amused, and snarled: "It's BARBARIC, that's what it is!" Fox was ashen-faced; he knew the game was lost, and that the All Black lead was not going to last.In the final, the South African referee Andre Watson robbed France of two tries in the first half. The New Zealand commentary team repeatedly expressed their sense of disturbance at Watson's rulings.
- I was there too to see one of the great comebacks. As a New Zealander me and my mates all thought it was business as usual until France played some 20 minutes of brilliant rugby and deservedly took the game away. There is no disgrace losing like this, but some of my friends found it hard to swallow. The French supporters were fantastic all the way through the game.
- I dont think the gap is closing. It comes and goes.Oz are way off what they were back in the 90s. South Africa have been weak but got it together for the wc.Ireland had a good sustained parch but seem to have wilted.In some ways this was a relatively poor Nz team going into the wc but was a big favourite as there were no other dominent teams. One reason Irelamd were tipped a yr out from the wc.
- I was there at Twickenham, and what a spectacular it was, even if it was my team on the receiving end. There are few better sights in rugby than the French in full flight.
I do think the writers big up of NZ is off the mark though. Australia should have been the out and out favourites for the RWC in '99. NZ had been dreadful in '98, losing 5 or 6 test matches in a row, and lost the last match before the world cup to Australia by a record margin. The team hadn't yet recovered from the retirements of the rugby legends Fitzpatrick and Zinzan Brooke. Overrated coach and an yes man (Taine Randall) as captain, and our greatest fullback (Cullen) playing at centre, which I have never worked out. Not much changed in '03 for that matter.
That said, NZ were rightly favourites for the semi, and the day will pass into legend...- Playing Tana Umaga on the wing, Cullen in the centres, and Jeff Wilson at fullback is a bizarre selection that I’ve never properly understood.I don’t think Umaga had actually played centre before then, but the fact you had three brilliant players playing in each other’s preferred position (in the long run) is just hilarious to me.
- Worth scrolling down to the video just to hear the French commentators absolutely losing it!
- So in the last World Cup England did a France without first looking like they'd lose to the AB's at first.
- Best match I've ever watched. Surely the most thrilling 30 minutes or so of rugby ever - NZ comfortably ahead at HT, scored first in the second half if I remember correctly, looked like a thrashing on the cards, then the turnaround... I just remember wave after wave of inspired attacking rugby, some moments of absolute genius. Sad the final was a total let-down! Bit like 2019...
- New Zealand was not "comfortably ahead" at halftime. The All Blacks had a lead which was due to one freak try to Lomu and FOUR PENALTY GOALS, which all came from the Tricolors' deliberate and cynical policy of fouls. It worked, of course, and let the Tricolors overpower the All Blacks in the second half---well, after they'd allowed Lomu another gimme touchdown.
- I was there, having bought the tickets second-hand from a work colleague who had gambled on an English semi-final place. The French actually started well but when Lomu went over we all raised a knowledgeable collective eyebrow and thought 'It was nice while it lasted'. The rest was utterly breath-taking. We ended up adopting a couple of Frenchman dressed as huge blue bears and took them on an adrenaline fuelled bender round the pubs of Twickenham.
- Wonderful day, wonderful weekend. I attended both the Aus/SAF match and this one too. As an Aussie I was totally relaxed and ready to enjoy the rugby on the Sunday, safe in the knowledge that the Wallabies were through to the final. As a result it was pure bliss to watch a classic match with no axe to grind either way. Aside from the match itself, the other thing I can recall vividly was many of the French squad getting absolutely hammered in the same bar/restaurant as myself and my wife that night, a fish place in Earls Court, Lou Pescadou if my memory serves ? Anyway, they were getting absolutely bolloxed on the back of their amazing victory so it was very little surprise that they were a non event in the final in Cardiff a week later !
- Don't forget that the context around the game was even wilder than usual, courtesy of a diplomatic scandal around certain unmeritorious French animal husbandry practices that had been uncovered at that time (French cattle were being fed their own faeces, or something to that effect). This in the wake of severe French sanctions against British beef in the aftermath of BSE, in a game played at Twickenham.The French must have expected a roasting from the native crowd, but such was the resentment against an All Black side carried by their talismanic Lomu, that they were astonished to find themselves recast as rugby liberators...
- The christening of my goddaughter, in a Surrey village.
About 2.15, I remembered I had a ticket in the inside pocket of my jacket – it had come to me as one of a pair from the previous day, and I wasn’t that bothered about attending.
Quick word with my pal: “would you mind if I nipped off, just remembered the ticket…“
He rang the local taxi company: “can you get my mate there in half an hour?”
Bless him, he did his best. I walked through an empty turnstile about 3.08…
The rest of it you know. - Saw this match at a bulging Frog & Rosbif in Paris, was a friend of the owner which was the only reason they let me in, not an inch of space left free. My disconsolate French mate had to stay outside as there was no more room. They were stamping people's hands to identify who'd already been in, so a quick press of the back of my hand onto his and he had enough of a trace to be allowed in to enjoy the match and then get staggeringly drunk.
- That was an extraordinary game. It's interesting how many times teams that put in an incredible performance in the semi-final then struggle in the final. England were flat in this year's World Cup final. In football, I can think of the Dutch teams that reached finals and then fell flat, not to mention the Germany side that thrashed Brazil and then huffed and puffed against Argentina (at least they won in the end though).
- I got to watch this for free, was working in Twickenham hospitality at the time and they used to let workers in during the game, so missed NZ taking a big lead but watched France go absolutely crazy. It was almost like somebody flipped a switch in both teams - NZ were as bad as France were brilliant. Also often forgotten that France were truly terrible in that year's 6 Nations, so this performance came from nowhere.
- As a Kiwi, this is my favourite NZ vs France encounter as well. As a kid, tough, I remember watching on TV the Bastille Day test in Eden Park in 1979 where France beat NZ (24-19) for the first time in NZ. It was another classic, and the French tries in the second half were magic. Actually, it's the first rugby match I remember watching. Check out the highlights on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqltQ_f_QGY
- I don't know what I like best about that highlights package - the exuberant commentary, the brilliant tries, the full speed action replays of the whole move for each try... great stuff. As a general principle with only ten minutes for the lot I agree with the decision to have the whole of the French national anthem, wouldn't necessarily bother with the NZ one, but if there was a haka I'd have chucked that in.
- I remember this well – probably the greatest game I have ever watched. My day got off to a shaky start when my girlfriend at the time kicked me out of her house in the morning for no other reason than she could. I called in a local café for a fry up and then across the road to the off-license to get some supplies for the game. As I left the off-license I bumped into the pub landlord who told me that he would be opening the pub late that day as he had to clean the pipes but I was welcome to watch the game in the pub if I wanted.I watched the game on the big screen with around 50 pints on the bar and the landlord’s permission to help myself.Later in the evening, I went home via the Chinese takeaway. As I was settling down on the sofa, my girlfriend called and said that she was missing certain aspects of our relationship and was I interested in visiting?The next morning I was kicked out again and I spent the day back in the pub with my mates re-watching the game.Happy days.
- i remember watching this in a pub in Central London that was full of Kiwis and one Frenchman near the screen trying to keep his head down.
By the end of the first half the Kiwis were buying him 'commiseration' beers.
At the end the pub was nearly deserted apart from one Frenchman singing a rousing version of the Marseillaise.
I have rarely seen one person that happy. - i remember watching this in a pub in Central London that was full of Kiwis and one Frenchman near the screen trying to keep his head down.
By the end of the first half the Kiwis were buying him 'commiseration' beers.
At the end the pub was nearly deserted apart from one Frenchman singing a rousing version of the Marseillaise.
I have rarely seen one person that happy.
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