The defensive story of France v New Zealand

France got off to a poor start defensively as they let the All Blacks through too easily in the 10/12/13 channels. The opening 25 minutes they struggled and the usual sure up defence was not holding up.

France are leaking badly in defence, specifically the backs.

Missed tackles after 25mins

4️⃣ Gael Fickou
3️⃣ Damian Penaud
3️⃣ Yoram Moefana
3️⃣ Matthieu Jalibert#FRAvNZL #RWC2023

— Rugby Bits (@RugbyBits) September 8, 2023

Gael Fickou went on to make 12 consecutive tackles after this and the defence sured up at 10 and 12 too but the hero's of this effort were the French loose trio as Cros, Ollivon and Alldritt went on to make 41 tackles with Cros making two dominant tackles and Alldritt a tackle turnover.

New Zeland missed just three tackles in the entire first half but were clearly under pressure in the second half as they went on to miss nine tackles in the first 10 minutes of the second half. France had 78% of the territory in the second half and New Zealand conceded 12 penalties for the game.