San Francisco Frontiers - France avoid 'panic' to show Rugby World Cup credentials

Those expectations were justified because France's form going into the tournament had been superb having gone unbeaten at home since February 2021.

Prehaps it was the tension or the heat on a sultry night at the Stade de France, where French President Emmanuel Macron was booed by the crowd before kickoff, but Les Bleus looked unusually nervous and trailed by four points with half an hour left to play.

France then pulled away to win 27-13 thanks to tries from winger Damian Penaud and replacement full-back Melvyn Jaminet, who came on late for Thomas Ramos after the latter had contributed 17 points with his boot.

"I don't think there was stress at the start of the game," Ramos told reporters.

"We'd prepared for that, we expected a big atmosphere. We're used to that at the Stade de France.

"I don't think we were tense because of the event. But those things can happen.

"We managed not to panic because it could have been different," he added.

Among the almost 80,000 spectators were a trio of France's football World Cup winners in 2018 -- Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud -- who celebrated the win against the All Blacks with their rugby counterparts in the changing room afterwards.

The French also tuned it at home in their droves with on average 15.4 million watching on television, a high for the sport in France since 2011.

- 'Fine-tune' -

Toulouse's Ramos had kept his side in the game with three first-half penalties, capitalising on New Zealand's poor discipline which ultimately cost the three-time winners their proud record of having never lost a group stage match in a World Cup, a run stretching back 31 games to 1987.

Ramos added another two penalties in the final quarter of an hour, one of which came after Will Jordan had taken him out in the air for a second time.

That consistency from the tee will be key if France's hopes of going deep in the competition are to become reality -- and Ramos must stay injury-free.

"Yes I was shoved a bit," Ramos said. "I'm not sure whether there should have been a yellow card for the first one, I thought it was more for the last one.

"It was a bit more dangerous," he added.

During the tenure of coach Fabien Galthie, Les Bleus' ability to win games late on has been a consistent theme.

Despite claiming last-gap victories over the likes of Australia and South Africa over the past 12 months, doing so against the All Blacks underlined why Galthie's side are considered serious contenders for the Webb Ellis trophy on October 28.

Alongside holders the Springboks and Ireland, Les Bleus are favourites.

In Pool A, they face lowly-ranked Namibia, an ever-improving Italy as well as Uruguay, in their next match on Thursday, in Lille.

In a claim that should worry their opponents, Ramos said France had room for improvement.

"It's a perfect way to start but we have to remain serious. We can't take the three games that are remaining lightly.

"We need to work, fine-tune our gameplan and not disrespect the opponents that are waiting for us.

"We have good things on the way, but we need to stay serious and focused," he added.

X.Roberts--SFF