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The All Blacks Sevens have been crushed 47-15 by Olympic champions France which ended their semi-final hopes in Cape Town in the second leg of the SVNS series.
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New Zealand’s men squeezed past USA in their pool opener by 19-17, but facing a new look France team they were pasted with Castres centre Antoine Zeghdar the chief destroyer.
The 25-year-old looked dangerous early pulling off a long line break down the All Blacks right edge. His next touch was a piece of play Dupont would be proud of, pulling off a no-look offload behind his back Quade-style.
The pass put Stephen Parez Edo Martin in for the opening try. Zeghdar had his second try assist moments later with a deft touch promoting the ball under pressure.
A tackle from Zeghdar forced an errant pass from New Zealand, which France scooped up and scored through Liam Delamare put France up 19-0 before an assist from Delamore added more misery at 28-0 before half-time.
Zeghdar proved unstoppable stepping inside Ng Shiu and offloading in the next tackle to set up another for France.
France play Fiji in the semi-finals, while upstarts Spain face South Africa in the other in the men’s draw.
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The All Blacks Sevens will playoff for 5th-8th
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Downright embarrassing. As soon as NZ stopped hosting tournaments, NZR genuinely stopped caring about the code anymore. Team's been on the decline ever since.
In France it's about the same problem : you can't find a rugby article without Antoine or Dupont in the title...
May be the group is more important in this win....?
Agreed but both being Antoine it was tempting !! But more a Vakatawa than a Dupont. Would like to see Galthié testing him as a 12.