Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Let’s be honest, so far as All Blacks tests go, this is a bit of a funny one.     If you were just weighing the odds on paper, I suppose there’s good reason why you might favour Les Bleus.   I hadn’t realised it until this week, but we’re coming off a three-game losing streak against the French, and you’ll remember last year’s first All Blacks test in Dunedin was a nail-biting one-point victory. The All Blacks didn’t scream cohesion. Add to that the fact I still don’t think we have an emphatic answer for who should start at ten, and Tupou Vai’i, surely one of the World’s best locks, is playing blindside flanker!     And yet the French are playing eight debutants and have left a slab of their elite stars back home. If it were any other test nation, I think New Zealand Rugby would have the right to kick up a bit of a fuss about the whole situation. But given the French and their history of spirited unpredictability on the rugby football pitch, it probably makes sense to secure a dominan