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French back-rower slams All Blacks as cheats
By Alex Shaw
French back-rower Kevin Gourdon has added fuel to the fire that surrounded Les Bleus' first Test with New Zealand this week, declaring the southern hemisphere side 'cheats'.
Gourdon, who started that game on the flank, also went on to say that the All Blacks are treated leniently by referees, due to the quality of their play on the pitch.
At a media conference on Thursday, Gourdon said the All Blacks "cheat, of course, but it's certainly related to the fact they play good rugby...which has a positive effect on the referees."
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World Rugby has been under significant heat following the tackle by Sam Cane and Ofa Tu'ungafasi on Remy Grosso, a tackle which led to the Frenchman suffering a double fracture of his skull. Neither Cane nor Tu'ungafasi received a card on the pitch, although Cane was penalised for a high tackle.
Tu'ungafasi received a Citing Commissioner Warning for his role in the tackle, with it deemed "just short of" red card level, whilst the citing commissioner agreed with the on-field decision of just a penalty for Cane's involvement.
With collisions to the head such a hot topic within rugby currently and several laws being amended to ensure stricter punishments for incidents, in the hopes of changing tackling behaviour in the long-term, this decision has been widely condemned.
France take on New Zealand in the second Test in Wellington on Saturday and it's unlikely Gourdon's comments will have gone unheard in the All Blacks' dressing room.
Poking the bear is often not the best approach when facing New Zealand and Gourdon, who will start the game at N8, shouldn't be surprised if he gets a little extra attention from the home side on Saturday.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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