Greatest All Blacks Victories Against France!

The All Blacks and France are set to square off against this Saturday night in Paris - this will be the last test of the year at a sane time for New Zealand fans with the England and Ireland games to be play at 3:30am on Sunday morning New Zealand time (love those French who play their football and rugby matches at 8-9pm at night for TV reasons!)

The All Blacks may actually have a decent record against France - punctuated by some rather infamous defeats to them in the past. But there have been several victories over Les Bleus which will go down in the memory as one of the greats.

Here are 8 of the best All Blacks victories against one of our greatest rivals.

1906 All Blacks 38 France 8, Paris

- The Original All Blacks tour and the first ever test played against France. The Originals are one of the greatest teams ever sent from this country and only missed out on a Grand Slam thanks to Bob Deans' try being disallowed against Wales, but performances like this were the reason they got such a following while on tour and helped establish the All Blacks legend.

1986 All Blacks 18 France 9, Christchurch
- The legend of the Baby Blacks.

1986 All Blacks 16 France 3, Nantes

- 1986 had been a difficult season for the ABs, rocked by the Cavaliers saga and then came an absolute hiding in Toulouse at the hands of a dominant French scrum. They were tipped to go 2-0 down in the series when the ABs stepped up led by Stu Wilson and co in the intimidating atmosphere of Nantes.

1987 All Blacks 29 France 9, Auckland

- Our first ever Rugby World Cup Final win.

2004 All Blacks 45 France 6, Paris

- The first season under Graham Henry had been a mixed one and defeat in this game probably would have left plenty of question marks about Henry's credentials going into the summer. Alas, the ABs produced some of their greatest rugby with a scrum that absolutely obliterated the much vaunted French - the clincher was forcing all the French props off and having to play golden oldies at the end of the game (Anton Oliver's smile said it all).

2006 All Blacks 47 France 3, Lyon

- Another fine performance in France by the ABs and even more impressively, away from Paris where the ABs are unbeaten actually. This was tipped as a banana skin of a starter to the tour but the ABs blew away the French with some champagne rugby worthy of the region.

2009 All Blacks 39 France 12, Marseille

- Shades of 2004 - a mediocre season for the ABs and the last real big test of the season before the summer. Big pressure again on Graham Henry to show that he still had the goods to lead this ABs side, and Henry and his men delivered once again, producing their best rugby of the year yet.  

2011 All Blacks 8 France 7, Auckland

- Nuff said.