New Zealand 62 — Tries: Retallick, Milner-Skudder, Savea 3, Kaino, Read, Kerr-Barlow 2; Cons: Carter 7; Pens: Carter
France (13) 13 — Try: Picamoles Con: Parra Pens: Spedding, Parra
CARDIFF // New Zealand showed why they are the world’s best team when they completely dismantled France in the Millennium Stadium.
Steve Hansen’s side exorcised the demons of their two previous World Cup defeats to France with a 62-13 win. It eclipsed the previous record margin in the knockout rounds of 28 points that South Africa steamrollered Samoa by in 1995.
Dan Carter contributed 16 points and set up two of Julian Savea’s three tries, while Ma’a Nonu was the bludgeon to the rapier talents of Nehe Milner-Skudder, who danced through the French defence to score his fifth try of the tournament.
New Zealand raced to a 29-13 lead at the break, but after half-time France fell apart and let in forwards Jerome Kaino, Keiran Read. Tawera Kerr-Barlow became the first substitute to snaffle a brace in a quarter-final.
New Zealand now face South Africa in the first semi-final on Saturday at Twickenham after the Springboks edged past Wales in London.
New Zealand’s most significant weakness throughout the pool stages was the propensity to cough up possession at the breakdown, but with French captain Thierry Dusatoir off his game, the reigning world champions enjoyed almost uncontested ball for the duration of the match.
Dusatoir had assured the world that his squad were ready to face the world’s top team after reports suggested there was, once again, in-fighting in the French camp that mirrored the build-up eight years ago when France shocked the All Blacks in this stadium.
They were not even close, and the sucker punch came as early as the 11th minute. Frederic Michalak went to clear his lines outside his 22 but the fly-half was charged down by Retallick, who galloped off to the tryline.
Michalak had suffered a hamstring injury at an earlier breakdown and by extending that in the kick, he hobbled off to be replaced by Racing Metro’s Remi Tales.
It got worse. Conrad Smith was caught in possession but managed to offload to Nonu, who drew Louis Picamoles and then fed Milner-Skudder who cut inside and waltzed past Brice Dulin and Scott Spedding to increase the All Black’s lead.
Moments later it was Carter’s sublime backhand offload that made fools of Picamoles, Noa Nakaitaci and Spedding that put Savea in for his first try.
Picamoles made up for his error when Parra found him by mistake after Dusatoir missed the scrum-half’s pass. The Toulouse No 8 dragged Retallick and Ben Smith over the line with him to touch down, but then handed the initiative back to New Zealand when he failed to gather a high kick just inside his own half.
Aaron Smith whipped it out to Retallick, who was lurking out wide and Savea kept his depth and width to hit the lock’s floating pass. He punched through three weak tackles to leave the northern hemisphere side 16 points adrift at the break.
Richie McCaw has spent a career evading the eyes of the referee and in the 47th minute the All Blacks skipper came in from the wrong side at a ruck. It incensed Picamoles so much that he applied his fist to McCaw’s face.
The television match official assured the crowd that it was not a punch but with Picamoles sent to the sin bin the floodgates opened and a black tsunami carried the French off in to the dark night.
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Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Quick facts on cancer
- Cancer is the second-leading cause of death worldwide, after cardiovascular diseases
- About one in five men and one in six women will develop cancer in their lifetime
- By 2040, global cancer cases are on track to reach 30 million
- 70 per cent of cancer deaths occur in low and middle-income countries
- This rate is expected to increase to 75 per cent by 2030
- At least one third of common cancers are preventable
- Genetic mutations play a role in 5 per cent to 10 per cent of cancers
- Up to 3.7 million lives could be saved annually by implementing the right health
strategies
- The total annual economic cost of cancer is $1.16 trillion
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Switch%20Foods%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Edward%20Hamod%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Plant-based%20meat%20production%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2034%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%246.5%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20round%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Based%20in%20US%20and%20across%20Middle%20East%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm
Torque: 800Nm from 2,500-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km
Price: From Dh796,600
On sale: now
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
