LONDON, 14 Sept - We begin our series reliving the Rugby World Cup finals through the eyes of the main protagonists with the 1987 decider between hosts New Zealand and France, including the views of Grant Fox, David Kirk, Philippe Sella, Wayne Shelford and Patrice Lagisquet.
New Zealand 29-9 France, Eden Park, 20 June 1987
The anticipation
“As you got closer to the park, the streets were lined with people. It was pandemonium; we’d not seen anything like it, and to be honest I was dry-retching on the bus because the enormity of the occasion sort of dawned on us. When we got to the dressing room I relaxed. When I walked down the field before the game I felt calm. It was actually getting through the cordon outside that was the challenge.” – Grant Fox, New Zealand
“We probably had one opportunity in our playing careers to be world champions, and we either took it or we didn’t. So there was a sense of destiny…” – David Kirk, New Zealand
“In the build-up to the game we spent two hours together, but it proved a costly mistake as it made us too emotional. We thought of our family and our friends but it was all too overpowering. It was very nice but we should have got all those thoughts and feelings out of the way on Thursday or Friday. That would have bought us a lot of strength but just before the game we lost our energy to our emotions.” – Philippe Sella, France.
The All Blacks had enjoyed a smooth procession through to the final, whereas hard-fought games against Scotland, Fiji and Australia had clearly taken their toll on France.
"... before the game we lost our energy to our emotions"
The match
"We nicked a line-out off their throw and 'Kirky' threw me the ball and, it popped into my head at the time to have a pop. It was a pretty ugly attempt, I hit it fat and dragged it a bit but it deflected off one of the French players, and spewed behind their back line over to the other side of the goal posts. And the rugby ball, as it does because it’s a funny shape, didn’t bounce kindly for the French. A.J. Whetton got there first but it ran away from him and Michael Jones was there next and he picked it up and scored the first try of the final.” – Grant Fox, New Zealand.
New Zealand went into half-time leading 9-0. A penalty goal early in the second half closed the gap to six points but that was as close as the French got to the ruthlessly efficient All Blacks, who scored further tries through skipper Kirk and John Kirwan to win 29-9.
“We were working very hard in that second half to get properly on top, and we called a very odd line-out call. We moved Michael Jones, who wasn’t the tallest forward, up in the line-out to second from back in front of Alan Whetton, and threw the ball to him. He won it despite jumping against a taller man because he had such a wonderful spring. From there we went down the blindside and set up a ruck. Michael took the pass and passed it back inside to me and we scored. In some ways calling that different line-out, just for variety, resulted in the try. That’s the only thing I can think of that was any different from the relentless kind of decision-making we normally took.” – David Kirk, New Zealand
“The biggest thing that sticks out in my mind is when David Kirk scored his try, and then straight after that John Kirwan scored his, we knew we’d won the World Cup 20 minutes out from the final whistle. Straightaway the boys said, ‘We’ve got it! Let’s just hold them out and the cup is ours.’ The execution of those two tries was just amazing. I threw the ball out to JK and he ran all the way to the line with guys falling off him. It was just magical to be in those areas during that part of the game.” – Wayne Shelford, New Zealand.
For France the final had clearly proved a game too far, mentally and physically.
The final word
“We tried to reproduce the same game as in the semi-final (an epic free-flowing encounter v Australia), and I think that was our biggest mistake because it was a different game. At that point we became too aware of the outside pressures and there was too much emotion. I remember when I left France my wife was pregnant and I was feeling a bit guilty. I think we were too loaded with emotions and not concentrating enough on the match itself. We weren’t prepared enough. Even though I played quite well in my duel with John Kirwan, I don’t think I was ready to win a final.” – Patrice Lagisquet, France
RNS sw