It is France-New Zealand time again. These words should conjure a frisson in any rugby connoisseur – and, by and large, they do. There are other more intense rivalries – the All Blacks against South Africa or Australia, for example, or England against, well, anyone – but for the promise of all that is holy in union, the brutality and the artistry, nothing quite stirs the imagination like Saturday night’s encounter in Paris.
All the more so given it is a quarter of a century since the greatest France-New Zealand episode of them all – some say the greatest match, full stop. On Halloween 1999, a suitably portentous date, these two met at Twickenham in the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup. What unfolded, it hardly requires a student of the game to recall, was the sort of nightmare only the French seem capable of inflicting on the All Blacks, who saw their 24-10 lead early in the second half shapeshift into a scarcely believable 43-31 defeat.
