Relive France’s Women’s XV defeat to New Zealand in the semi-finals of the 2022 Rugby World Cup

Harsh result for the Ladies XV in France. After a great fight at Eden Park in Auckland, Saturday, November 5, the Blues lost by one point to the New Zealanders (24-25). For the eighth time in nine participations, the French failed at the gates of the World Cup final for the first time. The Thomas Darach players will face Canada in the mini-final next Saturday.

However, it all started well for the French, and that helped the New Zealanders’ offensive deception in the first period. Leading thanks to a first try from Romane Ménager (10-0, 23rd), the Bleues didn’t break away when the Black Ferns equalized, and found a way to plant a second headbutt through Gabrielle Vernier before the siren (17-10, 40th).

But when they came back from the locker room, the hosts regained their momentum, scoring twice by Robbie Toye (17-15, 43) and Teresa Fitzpatrick (17-22, 53) to finally get ahead of the score in this segment. He came back to one point after a double by Romain Menagir (24-25, 64), the Blues, burdened with a yellow card sent to Safi Ndiaye in the last ten minutes, were no longer able to regain the lead and missed the victory in the last second. penalty.