“And yes, they are the All Blacks,” concedes, disappointed and fatalistic, Luciano Bottesi, the special correspondent in France for the Argentine daily Clarin for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Even in a reduced version, the New Zealanders had the ability to wipe Pumas off the map. » The Argentinians will only have had the illusion during the first five minutes of this semi-final, Friday October 20, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). “Their third but worst ever,” judges Liam Napier of the New Zealand Herald.
With seven tries scored, when the Argentinians only scored two penalties, including one at the very start of the match, the New Zealanders outrageously dominated the game. Alejo Miranda, from La Nacion, does not hesitate to speak of a “beating”, recalling that it is the second heaviest defeat in a World Cup semi-final after that inflicted – again by the Blacks – on Wales in 1987 (49 to 6).
“Since 2007, no team has scored 30 points or more in a semi-final,” adds the New Zealand Herald. And “the All Blacks did it with ease.” Such ease that they allowed themselves to finish the match at 14. Indeed, in the 65th minute, Scott Barrett received a yellow card, synonymous with a ten-minute exclusion. After serving his sentence, he did not return to the pitch, coach Ian Foster certainly believing that it was better to preserve him for the final. And the Blacks play the last quarter of an hour of this semi-final with one player less. The Argentinians failed to take advantage of it.
“The madness of this failed programming”
“When the fundamentals don’t work, the heart can’t do the work,” notes Alejo Miranda bitterly. As proof, notes the journalist from La Nacion, “on the last ball of the match, when the result had already been acquired for a long time, the Pumas benefited from a penalty. They looked for a touch to try to score a try and save the honor. But Nicolas Sanchez didn’t even manage to kick the ball out of bounds.”
The feat therefore did not take place for the Argentines. “In front of 77,653 spectators, the All Blacks left no room for miracles,” confirms La Nacion. But without a draw carried out well in advance, the Pumas would certainly not have found themselves at this stage of the competition, recalls Liam Napier, of the New Zealand Herald. “Everyone knows that the organizers of the World Cup ruined the tournament like never before by carrying out the draw years too early,” he asserts. Argentina and England were thus able to qualify when Ireland and France, two of the favorites, were eliminated. “The madness of this failed program has, once again, been exposed to broad daylight on this great stage” at the Stade de France.
And in the end, the party was not there, laments the Clarin journalist. Where we expected the Argentinian supporters, whose enthusiasm has invaded French cities and stadiums since the start of the World Cup, they got lost “in the immensity of Paris”. The cold and the rain are also to blame. In any case, “there was not the communicative energy that supporters usually give off before matches”. And above all, insists Luciano Bottesti, “the tournament has lost the atmosphere that reigned until the elimination of the host country in the quarter-finals”: ??“the party is over”.
The Stade de France at times completely sluggish
In fact, even the Stade de France was completely sluggish at times. That’s the saddest part, writes Liam Niaper. “Before the match, pockets of Argentinian supporters were vocal, but in the second half, when the match was over, the public was content to throw an ola with half an hour to go. »
“The dream is over,” says the Clarin journalist. “The All Blacks even turned it into a nightmare. » There still remains the prospect of securing a third place, perhaps by beating the XV de la Rose, the same one which inflicted a defeat on the Argentines at the start of the tournament.
For the All Blacks, the prospects are quite different, writes the New Zealand site 1News: they will take part in their fifth World Cup final and “remain on track to win a fourth world championship title”. They would thus make history, by becoming the first team to win a fourth coronation. Making all those who had buried them too quickly lie, recalls Gregor Paul, in the New Zealand Herald. This same team, “in chaos” 14 months ago after a home defeat to Argentina “is now in the World Cup final, and the coach that even his employer seemed to want to fire is now 80 minutes away from writing one of the greatest redemption stories in rugby history”.
