Nightmare continues: ABs fried by French

Reuters

TRY TIME: France's Thierry Dusautoir evades New Zealand's Leon MacDonald and Carl Hayman to score a crucial second half try.

Reuters

TRY TIME: France's Thierry Dusautoir evades New Zealand's Leon MacDonald and Carl Hayman to score a crucial second half try.

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Four more years. Those bitter words, plus the screaming celebrations of 20,000 Frenchmen, were ringing in the ears of the All Blacks after they were sensationally bundled out of the World Cup by France 20-18 in Cardiff on Sunday with Graham Henry's side suffering New Zealand's earliest exit from the tournament.

New Zealand's old nemesis France, as they did in 1999, out-passioned the New Zealanders with a powerful second half display.

Everything was going along reasonably smoothly for the All Blacks when they were leading 13-3 at halftime with Luke McAlister having scored a stunning try that promised so much.

But then the wheels fell off.

McAlister was sin-binned for 10 minutes. Dan Carter succumbed to injury and then his replacement Nick Evans suffered a similar fate.

Without their two talismen the All Blacks looked leaderless in the face of the onslaught.

They also had hard man Jerry Collins forced off with a sore thigh and he joined Anton Oliver and Byron Kelleher on the sidelines with those two having to live through another personal World Cup nightmare.

No New Zealand side has failed to make the semifinals in five previous tournaments.

Now the question will have to be asked: did the 2007 team choke?

Thierry Dusautoir and Yannick Jauzion were the destroyers for the French scoring second half tries which proved match winners.

A lone Rodney So'oialo try was all the All Black could conjur when the French upped the ante in the second spell.

And not even the Wellington No 8 could hold his head up high when the whistle blew for full time.

The French signalled their intentions from the start when they marched up to confront the All Blacks' haka in a sensational opening to proceedings.

Having been comprehensively out-played by new Zealand during Graham Henry's time in charge of the All Blacks, the French were determined to have their way in Cardiff on a day when they forced the Kiwis to wear silver jerseys.

But the French certainly appeared to have help on their side in the form of English referee Wayne Barnes who gave a questionable performance with the whistle.

His yellow carding of McAlister appeared a particularly harsh call and ultimately cost New Zealand a try.

He also missed a blatant forward pass in the leadup work to the Jauzion try. When that try was converted the French had their two-point lead and they clung on to it for another famous victory.

But there was further drama in the dying stages with New Zealand hot on attack and pressing for a decisive late strike to give them victory.

France managed to turn the ball over on their line with what appeared to be hands in the ruck. But there was no complaint from Barnes or his touch judge and the French survived to live another day.

They head off to Paris to play England in an unlikely semifinal after the defending champions had earlier in the day bundled Australia out of the tournament with a 12-10 upset in Marseille.

Naturally the All Blacks were hugely disappointed. But the reality was few played anywhere near their potential.

Lock Ali Williams had a storming game that deserved better and So'oialo was tireless alongside skipper Richie McCaw who got some very close attention from the man with the whistle.

McAlister looked good with the ball in hand and Joe Rokocoko roamed around industriously but even his valiant attempts to ignite attack were frequently snuffed out by some passionate French defence.

And when the French were in the lead the All Blacks uncharacteristically went into their shell.

All the money time and investment in their preparation came to nothing.

And now the All Blacks face four more years of pain and misery before they can try and redeem themselves ending Graham Henry's reign in charge of the team in the most bitter of circumstances.

France 20: Thierry Dusautoir, Yannick Jauzion tries; Lionel Beauxis con, 2 pen; Jean-Baptiste Elissalde con.

New Zealand 18: Luke McAlister, Rodney So'oialo tries; Daniel Carter con, 2 pen.

HT: 3-13.