Paris (AFP)
A mountain to climb immediately: the XV of France, host country of the World Rugby-2023, will face the New Zealand All Blacks from the group stages, according to the draw made on Monday in Paris.
The road will be perilous towards a first coronation which dreams of a French team which will also face Italy in group A: in the quarterfinals of this tenth edition, the second of this group could have to face the outgoing world champions, the South Africans, who appear to be favorites of Group B, in which they will face Ireland and Scotland.
The bottom of the table appears less raised: finalist of the World Cup-2019, England will have to get rid of Argentina and Japan (group D), opponents within its reach, before a quarter-final that could offer it Australia , Wales or Fiji (group C).
Organized in the heart of the French capital in front of a President Emmanuel Macron all smiles when the "New Zealand" ball came out, the draw was not lenient for the Blues, offering them the triple world champions, who They beat them by a small point in the last French final, at Eden Park in Auckland in 2011 (8-7).
Coach Fabien Galthié knew the risks for the Blues, placed in hat 2 because of their ranking stopped on January 1, 2020 (7th) while they have since risen to 4th place.
"It's going to be a difficult group. We know that New Zealand are favorites in the competition, with three World Cups," "Italy continues to progress, it will be a big meeting for us in France ahead of our supporters and our families ", reacted the coach.
- "Beat everyone" -
"Having France in our pool is going to be special," commented his New Zealand counterpart Ian Foster.
"We watched with admiration the way they are rebuilding their team, and preparing something very special for 2023," he continued.
The "only advantage" of being in the pool of the Blacks, "is that we can only take them in the final after": "if you want to be world champion, you have to beat everyone", estimated the president of the French Federation (FFR) Bernard Laporte, who, as a coach, twice failed at the foot of the world podium (2003 and 2007).
"One of my first strong memories of rugby is France New Zealand 2007 with the try of (Yannick) Jauzion and the comments of Thierry Gilardi", for a 20-18 victory in the quarterfinals at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff , remembered the young scrum half of the XV of France, Antoine Dupont, 24 years old.
Despite this strong opponent, the results obtained by the XV of France in this year 2020, disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, encourage optimism for the World Cup.
Deprived of little by England of the Six Nations Tournament as of the Autumn Cup, the Blues in full revival have won with the manner seven matches out of nine.
Opened on a prestigious victory against the XV de la Rose (24-17) in February, their 2020 campaign ended in December in Twickenham where French reservists totally new to this level came close to inflicting a lesson in humility to the same England (22-19 after extra time).
- Nine sites -
Owen Farrell and his partners hope to finally bring home a second world title in 2023. "We are in a difficult pool, given the way Argentina and Japan are playing at the moment and have been doing so for several years now," responded the English captain.
For South African coach Jacques Nienaber, "being in the same pool as Scotland and Ireland is a big challenge" but "to win the competition you have to be able to beat all the teams".
The nine host cities (Saint-Denis, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nantes, Nice, Saint-Etienne) will have to wait until the end of February to find out their posters.
© 2020 AFP