France win a penalty try against the All Blacks after Sonny Bill Williams' apparent brain fade.
Under-fire All Black Sonny Bill Williams has received some welcome backing after his Stade de France brain fade.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has gone in to bat for his embattled second five-eighth after he was widely lambasted for his knucklehead play early in the second half against France that saw him sinbinned, coughed up a penalty try and was the catalyst for the French to roar back from 31-5 to 31-18.
The All Blacks rallied well to repel the resurgent French in the second half and close out the test 38-18 to secure the Dave Gallaher Cup and an 11th straight victory over Les Bleus.
Williams had put in a quality night's work until that point, producing a deft kick-through to set up a try for his midfield mate Ryan Crotty and generally featuring prominently in a standout All Blacks first-half performance. He was strong on the carry, defended well and got through plenty of work over the first 40.
But then things turned seven minutes into the second spell when he lost his composure, and momentarily his mind, when faced with a crosskick from French first-five Anthony Belleau.
Instead of just rising up to catch a ball he had well in his grasp, he batted it dead, which is a common play in his former code of rugby league, but illegal in his current one of rugby.
But after having a day to chew on the incident, and subsequent reaction, Hansen called for some common-sense to prevail around the criticism of his polarising No 12.
"I reckon you guys have got be a little bit careful how hard you are on him here," said the All Blacks coach after naming his side to take on a French XV in Lyon on Tuesday night.
"Here's a guy that's played two codes, and in the other code you're allowed to do it. I watched the England-France [league] game, and they did it about 10 times I'm thinking no wonder the poor bugger did it.
"The penalty [try] was extreme, wasn't it. If he knew the law he would have caught it. It's an expensive way to find out, but then again it wasn't that expensive. It didn't cost us the game, it wasn't a World Cup final, a Rugby Championship final or a Bledisloe Cup final.
"We have to take it on the chin and move on and take it for what it is – a little bit of naiveté on the laws."
Hansen said Williams had actually done very well to track back and get in position to cover the crosskick, after a break up the middle from French halfback Antoine Dupont.
"He actually played really well, and if he hadn't had that [yellow card] you'd all be telling us how good he was. I thought he and Ryan [Crotty] played well. I was happy."
Hansen also confirmed that the placement of 22-year-old, 127kg Chiefs and Waikato tighthead prop Atu Moli on the bench covering loosehead in Lyon was part of a calculated long-term plan to convert him to a left-side prop.
"We'd like to see him switch over there permanently, but the Chiefs may not. We started working with him at loosehead when he was with us earlier in the year. It will be a major test for him to go over there but we think he's going to be capable.
"He's a good athlete, and if you look at the makeup of our team two really good [prop] athletes coming off the bench in the future would be quite handy."
Hansen said part of the desire to switch Moli was a feeling he would "get there quicker as a loosehead" and part was that their overall prop resources were slightly lighter on that side that at tighthead.
"Atu is a real athlete, and they're like hen's teeth, pretty rare in the front row. So if you can find one you take your time and build them.
Photo by: BILLY STICKLAND/PHOTOSPORT. Caption: Sonny Bill Williams shares a happy moment with All Blacks skipper Kieran Read after retaining the Dave Gallaher Cup.