The noise from the Kiwis dressing room in Paris after they had beaten a tough French side yesterday told of the huge relief of finally nailing a win.
Coach Gary Kemble admitted that, after agreeing the Kiwis had taken a long period of the game before they got
their act together.
"They sure did but at last we toughed it out. They were rapt. They deserve this after a hard week. They put everything into the third test against Great Britain and it wasn't good enough so they were down when we got here.
"This is the best French team I've seen for a while and they were well coached by John Monie. There wasn't any aggro, they played football as hard as they could."
Prop Sam Rapira was the only casualty, stretchered off after 66 minutes. He was knocked out after colliding with the forearm of French charger Cyril Gossard as a result of poor tackle technique. The stretcher and neck brace were a precaution and he was declared OK after the game.
Kemble was pleased with the performances of his teenage wings. "Chase Stanley grew another leg after his first test and Shaun Kenny-Dowall you couldn't fault in his debut."
Simon Mannering had been outstanding in all five end-of-year tests but was showing tiredness yesterday. Jeff Lima and Roy Asotasi were strong, though Asotasi was looking tired, too, because of the number of minutes he was being required to play.
"Roy has found it a little bit tough in the captaincy role with no really experienced players round him." Everywhere but here the league season will be well over but the tour review and recriminations at management level are set to roll into the new year.
Kemble said he wanted the World Cup job, "For sure," but he will face hot debate on that.
