France launched their bid for a first world rugby union crown on Friday night with a pulsating 27-13 win over over New Zealand at he Stade de France.
Still with a lusty rendition of La Marseillaise ringing in their ears, Fabien Galthié's players trailed to a Mark Telea try within two minutes of the kick-off.
But Thomas Ramos converted a penalty to bring them straight back and he added another one to send France 6-5 ahead after 20 minutes.
He swapped penalties with New Zealand's Richie Mo'unga and there was a slender 9-8 lead for the hosts at half-time.
That advantage disappeared soon after the restart though as Rieko Ioane set up Telea for his second try of the encounter.
But at 13-9, that was as good as it got for New Zealand.
Fly-half Matthieu Jalibert sent Damien Penaud clear to restore France's ascendancy and Ramos added the two points for the conversion.
Ramos notched up two more penalties - one while New Zealand were down to 14 men - to make it 22-13.
Tough
In the closing stages and Melvyn Jaminet added another try to gloss up the scoreline.
“It was a really, really tough game," player-of-the match Grégory Alldritt told the British broadcaster ITV.
“I said before, the one who was going to win was the team that played for 80 minutes. It’s a great night for us.
“It was really, really hot," the 26-year-old added. "There was fantastic support in the stadium. We are looking forward to the next game. We are not champions now so we have to keep working and go step by step.”
France play their second game of the tournament on 14 September in Lille against Uruguay. New Zealand will try to reboot against Namibia in Toulouse the following day.
New Zealand coach Ian Foster said his players failed to expoit their first-half domination.
“We fired some good bullets at them but it wasn’t enough,” he added. "It was a see-sawing game, but you’ve got to take your hat off to them. In the third quarter, they really squeezed us with possession.
Contest
On Saturday, the first full day of competition will start with the Group A fixture pitting Italy against Namibia in Saint-Étienne.
That is followed by the world's top ranked team Ireland taking on Romania at the Matmut Atlantique in Bordeaux in Group B.
"We have a chance to play teams like Ireland and South Africa who are both at the top level, " said Romania's assistant coach Valentin Ursache.
"For us it's an opportunity as, we don't play often against teams like that, so our speech to the boys will be to just go out there, show them what we've got and make the ones that are watching on TV proud of you.
"We have nothing to lose, for us it's just about being proud to be against them, to challenge them."
Australia face Georgia in Group C at the Stade de France and the day's action finishes with England - the 2019 beaten finalists - playing Argentina in Marseille.
The top three from each group qualify automatically for the 2027 tournament in Australia while the pool winner and runner-up move into the quarter final knockout stages of the 2023 competition .
The Webb Ellis trophy named, which is named after the presumed inventor of the sport, will be handed to the winning team after the finay on 28 October at the Stade de France.
