Allez les Bleus. On a night where the Stade de France resembled a sweaty mess of nerves and high emotion, France got the Rugby World Cup off to a thumping start with a 27-13 victory over New Zealand.
It was the first time the All Blacks, three-time winners of the tournament, had ever lost a pool match. No wonder France were serenaded off the pitch by nearly 80,000 fans, with a rousing rendition of La Marseillaise.
Not that their players had much energy to celebrate. Temperatures that lingered in the 80s fahrenheit (27C), and the frenetic pace of the game, saw to that.
What made France’s victory so impressive was that in the opening half they often veered between the cautious and the robotic. They conceded a try after 93 seconds, fumbled catches, kicked too much, and failed to find much rhythm. Yet in the final 30 minutes their power – and panache – exerted its will over a side many had regarded as favourites.
This tournament has been billed as the biggest World Cup ever, as well as a celebration of the sport’s 200th anniversary, and crowds began to gather more than four hours before the 9.15pm kick-off.
The crowd was then whipped into a further frenzy by an opening ceremony designed to promote French “savoir-faire and art de vivre”, which began with a bicycle-riding baker arguing with a cockerel, before getting progressively weirder.
There were echoes of Danny Boyle’s London 2012 Olympics show as actors celebrated around a traditional town square, before dancing around a pop-up Eiffel Tower with the Webb Ellis trophy on top.
As the actors left the stage the crowd began standing, waving tricolours and chanting. Then came the flyover, decorating the Stade de France in blue, white and red, and the boisterous cries of “Allez les Blues”.
Next, the speeches, which were frequently drowned out by the crowd, who needed the stadium scoreboard subtitles to hear World Rugby’s chair, Bill Beaumont, say: “It was 200 years ago that our great sport was born, and there can be no better way to celebrate than here in France. The stage is set, the teams are ready. Alors, allons!”
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, was initially booed but there was loud applause when he told spectators that “France is hoping to win this World Cup on the pitch but also in the hearts of everyone who has come to celebrate our shared passion”, before declaring the 10th edition of the tournament open.
With France also hosting the Olympics next year, concerns had been raised about the security issues at the Stade de France, especially after numerous ticketing and security concerns at last year’s Champions League final. Hours before kick off huge numbers of volunteers were present helping fans, along with a large contingent of police with heavy machine guns.
That helped the preliminaries pass largely without incident, although the crowd were stunned once the action started after New Zealand went ahead barely a minute into the match after a cross kick by Beauden Barrett was collected by Mark Telea.
It didn’t help France that their hooker, Julien Marchand, went off early with injury. But only strong defence – and the boot of Ramos – kept them in the game in the first half.
When New Zealand went 13-9 ahead early in the second half, the fans howled their frustration at what they believed was a forward pass in the build up. However, crowd discontent did not lead to French indiscipline.
Instead a try from Damian Penaud put France back in front, while a yellow card for Will Jordan meant the home side could enjoy 10 minutes playing against 14 men. The momentum had shifted, and from then on there was no looking back.
A further try from Melvyn Jaminet, along with 17 points from the boot of Thomas Ramos, sealed victory. And as the final whistle blew, France’s players fell to the ground as one, a sweaty, soggy, triumphant heap.
It is early days, especially given this Rugby World Cup stretches over another 47 matches for the next seven weeks, but they couldn’t have wished for a better start.
On Saturday England will also hope to hit the ground running against Argentina in Marseille, while Scotland and Wales get their campaigns under way on Sunday.
