04/06/2007
Veteran French fullback Thomas Castaignede believes Graham Henry's all-conquering All Blacks aren't just the No 1 side in world rugby, but they're the next best as well.Though he's not going as far as handing the World Cup over just yet, hinting that the French still have "something special" up their sleeves for October.
The 32-year-old 53-test international reaffirmed his view that New Zealand possesses the two best teams in world rugby after playing in the 11-42 defeat to an albeit scratchy first-up All Black performance at Eden Park on Saturday night.
New Zealand coach Henry left a number of his first-choice internationals out of their opening fixture of the year, yet the All Blacks still scored five tries to one in a comfortable victory over a makeshift French outfit missing pretty much all of its first-choice stars.
And Castaignede made no secret of his admiration for the New Zealand game after the test in an interview with Yahoo!Xtra Rugby.
"I tell you the main problem in the world of rugby at the moment is in a series of games the All Blacks are the best team, and the second best team are probably the All Blacks B," said the French fullback.
"When you see a guy like [Daniel] Carter who is the best No 10 in the world going out and see a guy like [Nick] Evans coming in and really moving the ball well, creating gaps for others. Of course around him he's got some good players, but he's another magician and I think that's the key point of the All Blacks.
"They've got so many talented players who are able to move the ball. You've got the power, but you've also got the skills and that's everything in the game."
But the Saracens star who's hoping to make the cut for an international swansong at this year's World Cup, says the hosts of the global event won't be rolling over later in the year.
"Next Saturday will be a tough game for us again. We don't have all our potential, but we'll fight hard like we did [at Eden Park].
"But the World Cup will be something different. We'll have so much pressure, but we'll have a different team. We've got some power too, when we want to deliver. In November it was quite hard but we are better than what we showed in November, and the World Cup will be something special."
In terms of the second test in Wellington this week, Castaignede expects some adjustments to be made by the tourists, but is realistic enough to know the task doesn't get any easier against a New Zealand side with a game under its belts and set to welcome back a big gun or two.
"We will try to see what went wrong and try to fix it, but it's not going to be easy. Especially with my big friend Jerry Collins who I think is going to come back to action. Outside of rugby he's very, very nice, but on the pitch he's not really funny. He's a tough guy."
But Castaignede did say he believed this controversial touring group could yet have some spinoffs for French rugby down the line.
"Rugby doesn't stop after the World Cup," said the always outspoken international who will retire at the end of this year. "There will be a French team after the World Cup and some of the guys you see here might be the guys of the future. It's really exciting for them to start in such hard conditions, because I think you can't find something harder. That will help them build to become better players."
Castaignede was happy enough with the "fight" shown by the French in the opening test, but was disappointed they weren't able to gain more possession and exert more pressure of their own.
"It's not positive," he added. "It's positive when you go back from a game and you won it. It would have been very positive if we had of scored one more try, but we didn't have really any opportunity. We saw that when we put them under pressure they can be fragile too, and that's a key point to learn for the future."
Still, there's no doubt the one time backline wizard is just rapt to be in New Zealand once again.
"Can you believe I've done my first game against New Zealand 12 years ago. I'm proud of that. When you play in New Zealand it's always like a dream as a player. It's the best that you can see. I was there in '94 when the French beat the All Blacks, and that was a magic moment.
"I hope we can do that in the World Cup too."
But will he be there to be part of dream home triumph?
"I hope so," says the likeable English-based Frenchman. "We will see. I hope I can bring something with my experience and my legs. Even though they are getting tired, I still feel I have something to give."
*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog
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