France will host the All Blacks in the opening match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Friday at 21:15 (SA Time) . This will be only the second time in World Cup history that France and New Zealand have been drawn in the same pool. Six of their seven previous meetings have come in the knock-out stages, with France’s only two victories coming at Twickenham in the 1999 semifinal and Cardiff in the 2007 quarterfinal.
France has only lost their opening pool game once in their history, against Argentina at Stade de France in 2007 and has not made it past the quarter-final stage since 2011, with two of their three fifth-place results in RWC history coming at each of the past two tournaments.
New Zealand are the only team in RWC history to have never lost a pool game, winning all 31 matches played. The three-time champions have only failed to reach the semi-finals once in their history, eliminated in the quarter-finals by France in 2007.
Both France and the All Blacks are expected to qualify for the quarter-finals from Pool A, which also features Italy, Namibia and Uruguay, however a strong win in the opener could set the tone for a successful World Cup campaign.
France is one of the favourites to win the 2023 Rugby World Cup and enter the competition ranked third, one position ahead of the All Blacks.
Over the last few years, cracks have emerged in the All Blacks' game and they are heading into the tournament after suffering a 7-35 defeat to the Springboks, which was their worst defeat ever. However, France will not fall into a trap by looking at past matches and they will be showing the respect New Zealand deserves.
All Blacks coach Ian Foster said “I’m often asked what we’d do differently about 2019 and I said ‘Just throw the first game’. We beat South Africa and they happened to have a different path to the final. You never know in tournaments. We have one clear goal, to make sure we qualify and get into a quarter-final situation. Then it is a one-off game. Everybody is talking about this game, but we have also got Namibia, Uruguay and a very enthusiastic Italian team."
“But this game is special in its own right. This is my third World Cup and I have never seen so much put on it. I think that’s because the host nation has strong expectations of winning it, the same with the public, against a team I think the public have a lot of respect for. It is well scripted and it’s a game we want to commit everything to. But if we win or lose, it doesn’t change much. We have still got to qualify out of this group.”
“There’s no doubt there’s a lot of pressure on France, being the hosts. How they respond to that, I’m not sure. The only thing we can control is to make sure we pressure them and play our game, and not get caught up in the emotion of the crowd. If we win, we always have that massive expectation to go and do it again. If we lose badly, we have got to deal with all that expectation."
“We have prepared well for how we deal with pressure, but this particular group has got to grow under World Cup pressure, and it is different. We’re proud of the way the guys have gone about their work. We had some clear goals and we’ve ticked off most of those. Now we are ready to go. We want to walk out onto the park with shiny eyes, nice and light, and ready to play. We have been waiting for it. Once the ref blows his whistle, let’s see what happens.”
Raphaël Ibanez, general manager of France said ""It is obvious tomorrow will be a big day for all of us. It has been four years now [since the last Rugby World Cup] and we expect the home crowd to be supporting us. We can be proud of what we have achieved so far but we know it is a big stage, a big step for us against a fabulous New Zealand team."
"There's a real buzz around the French team. We feel supported and that gives us great pleasure. It helps us perform because we don't want to disappoint our families or the French public.
"It's tomorrow, it's coming up fast. We have to make the most of every moment and use it to put in a great performance."
Prediction: All Blacks by 10.
Teams:
France: 1 Reda Wardi, 2 Julien Marchand, 3 Uini Atonio, 4 Cameron Woki, 5 Thibaud Flament, 6 François Cros, 7 Charles Ollivon, 8 Gregory Alldritt, 9 Antoine Dupont, 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 11 Gabin Villiere, 12 Yoram Moefana, 13 Gaël Fickou, 14 Damian Penaud, 15 Thomas Ramos. Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 18 Dorian Aldegheri, 19 Romain Taofifenua, 20 Paul Boudehent, 21 Maxime Lucu, 22 Arthur Vincent, 23 Melvyn Jaminet.
All Blacks: 1 Ethan de Groot, 2 Codie Taylor, 3 Nepo Laulala, 4 Samuel Whitelock, 5 Scott Barrett, 6 Dalton Papali'i, 7 Sam Cane (c), 8 Ardie Savea, 9 Aaron Smith, 10 Richie Mo'unga, 11 Mark Telea, 12 Anton Lienert-Brown, 13 Rieko Ioane, 14 Will Jordan, 15 Beauden Barrett. Replacements: 16 Samisoni Taukei'aho, 17 Ofa Tu'ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Tupou Vaa'i, 20 Luke Jacobson, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 David Havili, 23 Leicester Fainga'anuku.