A weakened French side get their three-match Test series against the All Blacks underway in Dunedin this weekend and the bookies are not giving the underdogs much hope here with the hosts priced up as heavy favourites.
New Zealand v France | Saturday 5 July | Forsyth Barr Stadium
To Win (80 Mins)
New Zealand | Draw | France
Handicap
New Zealand | France
We finally get a three-match mid-year Test series and the French have to go and ruin it by sending out an understrength side to ‘the land of the long white cloud’. Yes, player welfare is a thing, but come on! Send out your bet to take on one of the world’s best!
Jokes aside, it’s pretty disappointing we don’t see a full strength French side take on the Kiwis this July due to the Top 14 paradox. When Fabien Galthie took over the French side a few years back he did all he could to get the Top 14 clubs onboard with the focus being on getting the clubs to release players for the 6 Nations. To appease the clubs and make sure his players don’t burn out, Galthie has taken to ending understrength sides on mid-year tours over the past few years. The ploy has reaped dividends with France winning the 6 Nations this season and the national side building a tremendous amount of depth. Iit has come at a cost, however, with the French drawing one-one with Argentina on last year’ mid-year tour and almost losing to Japan in 2022.
While those were two-match series, they are also far less prestigious than a tour of New Zealand. Anyway, France aren’t the only side mix and matching squads with a focus to win tournaments and they would have been without their best player with Antoine Dupont sideline with injury for most of the year.
Enough about the French, let’s move over to the host nation who are looking to build on a decent if not spectacular 2024 campaign where they won ten of their 14 fixtures.
Scott Roberstson has opted to freshen his squad up for this series with Hurricanes stalwart Du’Plessis Kirifi joined by Highlanders midfielder Timoci Tavatavanawai in the July squad alongside Brodie McAlister, Ollie Norris and Fabian Holland all five players had stellar Super Rugby Pacific campaigns and will be hoping to debut this weekend.
As noted earlier, this is far from a first string French squad with the likes of Romain Ntamack, Gregory Alldritt, Damien Penaud, Thomas Ramos and Louis Bielle-Biarrey all absent. With experience limited, the squad will lean heavily on veteran centre Gael Fickou who has been named as Tour captain.He will also rely on Cameron Woki and Demba Bamba to galvanize this squad. They have brought in a bit of back-up late in the piece ith centres Pierre-Louis Barassi and Nicolas Depoortere linking up with the squad thi Tuesday alongside potential debutants Pierre Bochaton and Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer.
Verdict: New Zealand (-)
The Kiwi public and media are not best pleased about this weakened French quad and are – rightly or wrongly – viewing it as a slap in the face. My money is on the All Black making their fans’ dreams come true by smashing this second/third strength French outfit.
