Rugby World Cup 2023. Did a complicated New Zealand outplay France in the opening match?

Journalists from the New Zealand Herald newspaper returned to investigate the All Blacks’ summer of defeat against South Africa (35-7) to the World Cup final, which they lost again to the Springboks (12-11).

The story mainly refers to the week leading up to the opening match against France (a 27-13 Blues victory) where the harassment of the New Zealanders continued. This began with the implementation of important security measures during the transportation of the high-speed train between Lyon, where their base camp was established, and Paris.

The rest was no better, according to the New Zealand Daily. The Black Team stayed at the Novotel Hotel in Creteil, upset by the problem of air conditioning, which was absent from the rooms of many players, while temperatures exceeded thirty degrees in the capital. So much so that half the select group had taken the mattresses out of the rooms to settle in the corridor to try and find freshness. Even the team’s nutritionist feared that some of the blacks would suffer from dehydration before facing the tricolor.

Ian Foster’s men, whose wife and one of his daughters were attacked near the hotel, also had the right to activate the fire alarm at 3am.

Far from ideal to prepare for a World Cup match.