Paul Lewis: In defence of 'arrogant' New Zealand rugby fans

The All Blacks acknowledge their fans after the Bledisloe Cup match between the Australian Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images.

OPINION:

Come off it, Kieran Crowley, since when does not knowing who's in the French team make New Zealand rugby fans arrogant?

One-eyed, yes, largely ignorant of what's going on in the Northern Hemisphere, yes, and even guilty of not caring much about either failing.

But arrogant? No.

Here's what Crowley said: "New Zealanders are arrogant to the rest of the world as far as the rugby side of things goes. There are some outstanding players in every team throughout the world, but you ask New Zealanders - they wouldn't know three quarters of the names of the French players."

Some have interpreted this as a woe-is-me cultural cringe that New Zealand fans have an outsized sense of entitlement; viewing defeat as a temporary crack in the mirror of reflected glory; basking in the knowledge that the world will soon tilt on its correct axis again with the All Blacks at the top.

But is it really arrogance to have high expectations? Remember Tana Umaga barking at the interviewer who asked whether fans' expectations were too heavy to bear: "No! It helps us win".

Maybe Kieran from Kaponga meant ignorance – if so, fair enough. But let's also be clear. The French have given us a lot to be ignorant of in the past 20 years.

Dating back 20 years the playing record between the two nations reads like this: Played 23, All Blacks 19 wins, France three wins, one draw. The All Blacks have scored 757 points to France's 332. That includes last year's dominant French victory – note the lack of arrogance; I haven't spoken to one rugby fan here who did not believe that the French were the better team, winning fair and square.

Yes, there were famous French days – the 2007 ambush in Cardiff at the World Cup (New Zealand's worst result at a World Cup) and they beat an undercooked All Black side in 2009 in the first test of a domestic series. That chilling 8-7 cliffhanger in the 2011 World Cup at Eden Park, waiting for the French to snatch it, still produces involuntary shrinkage in various areas of the torso.

But mostly the All Blacks have beaten France relatively comfortably, including putting 60 points on them twice in the last 20 years and 50 points once.

The French have been typically Gallic in that time (and past years). Rugby politics in France are volatile and emotional; coaches are vilified, staff and players constantly changing. Over years, the French lost their flash and dash.

No one could run and pass like the French when they were at their instinctive best. They were the most entertaining team in the world when the muse was on them, the All Blacks and other strong opponents reduced to waiting for the guillotine as the French revolutionaries ran riot - 1999 anyone?

Fans stand for the national anthems during The Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies. Photo / Getty Images.

But when they were bad, they were execrable. Over the years, successive coaches bled the flair out, instilling instead a strong forward- and percentage-oriented game. French rugby became stolid and unsuccessful.

As a boy, I watched the panache of the French backs in their 1968 tour of this country and, in particular, a first-five called Jo Maso – an ordinary kicker but he glided into holes you'd swear were not there before he found them. Players like Serge Blanco, Philippe Sella and Thierry Dusautoir are not just the best of France but among the best the game has ever seen.

Then there's Jean-Pierre Rives – a magical loose forward – who, upon retirement, became a world-renowned painter. There's something very French about that.

So, until last year and that demonstrative victory over the All Blacks, there was precious little reason for a Kiwi fan to follow French rugby. They were just the moneyed-up sods who pinched All Blacks and good Kiwi players by waving large cheques under their noses.

We in New Zealand are probably now more familiar with Ireland and England players than the French, because of their recent progress and wins over the All Blacks. Now the French are favourites – and rightly so – for the next World Cup, while the All Blacks are enduring taunts they've got the wrong coach, don't have a game plan and are being monstered up front.

France are now becoming imbued with the touch, the tinge, the whiff of arrogance that is a fueling and incentivising part of the DNA of all successful teams.

German tennis star Steffi Graf probably said it best: "You can have a certain arrogance, and I think that's fine, but what you should never lose is the respect for the others."

And I don't think Kiwis ever did, regardless of whether they could rattle off French names.