France will not be able to ground the high-flying Kiwis, according to Paul Ackford
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The Telegraph's Paul Ackford cannot foresee France preventing the All Blacks from fulfilling their destiny.
"My love affair with New Zealand rugby started 33 years ago. I say love affair but that’s inaccurate. Fear affair more like, because in 1978, aged 20, I found myself playing against Graham Mourie’s touring All Blacks for the South and South-West division, as it was in those far off days.
"God, those Blacks were good. It wasn’t that they were particularly hard men. I’d grown up in the county championship where a fixture between Devon and Gloucester usually started with a fight and ended with a series of pitched battles.
"I made the mistake once of tweaking the testicles of Phil Blakeway, a supernaturally strong Gloucester prop, in an attempt to persuade him to let go of the ball in a maul. Big error.
"Blakeway grabbed my wrist and held on until the maul disentangled and it was only him and me left, him still holding on to my wrist, me breaking the world record for the number of apologies spewed out in fifteen seconds of stammering fear. I spent the few remaining minutes of the match as far away from the ball and Blakeway as possible."
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