Upset win to France in league test

Press, 24 November 1980, Page 40

Upset win to France in league test

NZPA Perpignan, France France pulled off an upset 6-5 victory in its

opening rugby league test against New Zealand at Perpignan yesterday by scoring early and holding the slim lead for the rest of the match.

The Kiwis, fresh from a succsesful tour of Britain where they won seven games, drew one and lost six, suffered an early setback when the French right wing, Jean Marc Bourret, grabbed a bouncing ball near the New Zealand line with only two minutes of play gone and crashed across for a try. The suprise of the French crowd, who ex-

pected their team to struggle against the flamboyant Kiwis, grew to amazement when Bourret took a pass from a streaking Yvan Greseque and went in to score in the tenth minute, for his and France’s second try. Bourret failed to convert both tries but the French who had nine of t h e i r internationals unavailable, including the dangerous right-wing, Didier Savonne, continued to dominate the action. The Kiwis failed to hold' vital passes and found that the cohesive teamwork, which had highlighted the British tour, had all but deserted them. When the Kiwis did get

close to the: French line, the excellent kicking of the satnd-off half, Herve Guitraud, sent them racing back towards their own goal line. The Kiwis’ running game started to move in the twenty-fifth minute, but their scrummaging remained as sloppy as it had been in Britain. The French weathered the Kiwi pressure well, fighting off attack after attack, holding the New Zealanders only a few metres from the French line. Frustration heaped on frustration as the Kiwis failed to tidy their scrummage, continued to put down passes and showed an inability to

frame a successful attack. Then the men of the Tricolor opened the second half as they had the first, attacking strongly. slTie Kiwis reponded, not waiting as long in this period to start moving, and showed some of the vitality of thier game. But they were set back again by an iron goal-line defence. Their one score came on a long breakway in the fifty-second minute in which Gary Prohm turned on the speed to score near the posts. Gordon Smith converted to close the gap to one point but the French held fast to secure victory. Outstanding in the New Zealand team were Prohm,

Mark Graham and John Whittaken ‘ ' ’• New Zealand substituted BUI Dickison for Ray Baxerldale and Howie Tamati for. Alaa Rushton in the seventieth and twentieth minutes respectively. France ; substituted Guy Delaunay and ■ Guy Garcia for Jean-Marc Bourret and Jean Jacques Vila. The match was played in good conditions, on a dry pitch in clear, cool weather. A : disappointed New Zealand . manager-coach, Mr Ces Mountford, blamed the refereeing in yesterday’s test for his side’s narrow defeat. Although he paid tribute to the superb tackling of

the French defence he said that poor scrummaging and off-side decisions by the referee had done much to frustrate the New Zealand attacks. The French coach, Mr Louis Bonnery, said he was delighted that France had won but believed they should have done better. He said New Zealand had staged a remarkable comeback and made much of the running in the test despite the early French domination. “We can take comfort, however, from the performance of a team which had half its members on the sidelines because of injury or illness,” Mr Bonnery said.