France vow to end New Zealand tour with a win after second heavy defeat in Whangarei

France captain Alexandra Chambon has refused to abandon hope of a first win on New Zealand soil, even after the Black Ferns claimed a 31-12 victory at Semenoff Stadium in Whangarei on Saturday — the tourists’ second defeat inside a week.

The result was a marked improvement on the 81-12 thrashing France suffered in Hamilton seven days earlier, but it still represented a comfortable win for the hosts, who scored five tries to France’s two. Chambon acknowledged the frustration while insisting the third and final match of the tour, in Christchurch, remains a genuine target rather than wishful thinking.

“We still finished about 20 points behind, so it’s frustrating,” she said. “We had trouble imposing our rhythm, with rucks being slowed down. Creating gaps isn’t as easy. They also put a lot of defensive pressure on us. If you don’t have the necessary depth or misread the situation, you get tackled — and that leads to errors. All of that held us back from playing our game effectively.”

The match in Whangarei was far closer than the scoreline suggests for long stretches. With the score at 14-12 late in the third quarter, France had New Zealand pinned deep in their own half and were asking serious questions of the Black Ferns’ defence. Loosehead Ambre Mwayembe — returning from suspension after her red card in a match against Australia in Provence in September — crashed over the line under the posts, only to be denied when she could not ground the ball. The resulting goal-line dropout proved decisive.

Within 13 minutes of that moment, New Zealand had scored three tries in five minutes to put the game beyond reach at 31-12.

Head coach François Ratier was candid about the significance of the disallowed score. “After that, we should have been incredibly tenacious because we knew how deep their bench was,” he said. “We knew that we’d have to weather the storm when they brought those players on. We should have been ahead at that moment. It bothers me when we get in situations we can win, like today, and we don’t.”

Ratier had set a deliberate gameplan to avoid conceding territory. “The gameplan was to avoid playing too much in our own half, to avoid exposing ourselves given the power balance, and to be more effective with our kicking,” he said. “Overall, we managed to keep them pinned in their own half. We know they’re a team that plays a lot of attacking rugby, so they tried things. They got a bit carried away at times, and we rattled them.”

The statistics underline France’s improved efficiency. They entered New Zealand’s 22 ten times, converting two of those visits into tries. In Hamilton the previous week, the Black Ferns had crossed the tryline 13 times from 20 visits; in Whangarei, they scored five tries from 11 entries into France’s 22.

France face the Black Ferns in Christchurch on Saturday in the final match of the tour.