Brian McKechnie injured

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 36

Brian McKechnie injured

Cabernet’s dropped goal two minutes later brought the score back to 10-9 and three minutes later the All Blacks suffered a blow when McKechnie left the field nursing his left shoulder — a niggling but not serious injury which has worried him over the last week. He was replaced by Doug Rollerson who appeared still not to have recovered fully from his knee ligament injury but in the final twenty minutes the All Blacks won possession that really mattered. The big excitement came five minutes from full-time

when Loveridge had his head brutally kicked by a French forward during a New Zealand assault. Retaliatory action . was taken by the All Blacks and while Loveridge had the gash on his head swathed in bandages, Mr Norling spoke to Mourie and the French captain, Robert Paparemborde. With normal time up, Hewson put the icing on the All Black cake with a 38metre penalty after the French lock, Daniel Revallier, was penalised at a lineout for passing off the ground.

It was then left to the New Zealanders to celebrate what Mr Burke described as “a* magnificent win” in the knowledge that they cannot now lose the two-test series. Mr Burke described the New Zealand approach to the game as “sound, sensible test match rugby” and said the tactic of pressuring' the French inside their own territory had been carried out as he wanted. “We came to France wanting to play open, rugby but their backs have been standing up and not allowing us to do that. They would have

loved to knock us down again today if we had tried to move the ball.” Mourie conceded that as a spectacle the match had not been great, but also defended the All Black tactics: “Their tight marking in the backs has prevented us moving the ball to the wings and today was a development of the tactical approach which we used successfully against the French Barbarians,” he said. For New Zealand: Stu Wilson a try, Allan Hewson a dropped goal, and two penalties. For France: Guy Laporte two penalties and Serge Gabernet a dropped goal.