France in the RWC - let's not **** up this time

On the morrow our destiny arrives, for France await to break our spirit or fill our hearts with glee.

I can count the number of really bad days I've had on two hands. Days where I've wanted the world to open up and swallow me, so I didn't have to deal with the reality unfolding in front of me. Two of those days have involved the French rugby team. In 1999, heart filled with pride and a skip in my step, I trundled up to Twickenham with ticket in hand to see the boys get handed the most embarrassing slap in the face of all time. Forgetting to play for 20 minutes of the game, the ABs allowed 33 unanswered points in that second half. The entire crowd (but for us few thousand kiwis) all sang 'Allez les Bleus' for the whole 40 minutes of the second half. The English are a terribly evil bunch at times and I shall never forgive them for their turncoat nature. We fought for them in two World Wars but it counted for nowt as they turned on us and cheered every try the 'cheese eating surrender monkeys' scored. Tana Umaga had the single worst game of any player in the history of the world as he allowed Dominci to piss all over him every time he ran by. Evidence gathered since showed just how into the game 'the predator' was:

That's him there. So involved in the game, he has time to text some bullshit to someone. Meanwhile Merths and Lomu look angry enough to tear someone a new one. Blokes that good at rugby should never have had to put up with what happened that day. John Hart and co. effed up so badly with selections and playing guys out of position it wasn't funny. It's all been analysed before and none of us want to go through it again. The whole game is here. Don't watch it.

In 2007, our run to the final was curtailed in the quarters by the French due mostly to Graham Henry's mental rotation policy which meant that none of the players had ever actually been on the field together before. However, it should be remembered that Dan Carter was busted that day too and we were victims of the worst refereeing display of all time by any official in any sport in the history of the universe. I was watching at a pub in Thame and walked out 10 seconds past the touchdown from the forward pass, refusing to believe that it wasn't being brought back for a scrum. I crawled home livid, not watching the last few minutes or so, unable to believe what had taken place. Astonishing that a team like that had lost their heads and couldn't adapt enough to drop a goal with all the pressure we had. Dropping goals is easy. Just watch this Bok bugger nail a bunch.

In the 15 years of running this blog on our mighty sporting endeavours, those two occasions of French dismay have easily been the lowest ebbs the blog has seen. Yet, the mightiest sporting occasions were easily the All Whites draw against World Champions Italy in the 2010 World Cup and The ABs massive first tour victory over the boks in '96. Let's remember those now and draw on the power and guts displayed to will the boys on to a massive, no holding back, good old-fashioned, pants down beating tomorrow.

I'm not confident of any sort of result. We all know by now that the French take rugby very seriously, especially against us. Let's just cross fingers, pray to whatever religious deity we think might do the job, and cheer the boys on to victory.

COME ON BLACKS!!