Profoundrelief succeeded by unrestrained elation enveloped players and fans alike after the New Zealand All Blacks ground out an 8-7 victory over France in the rugby World Cup final at Eden Park on Sunday.Four million New Zealanders throughout two islands willed their team to their first World Cup victory since they defeated the same opponents by 20 points at the same venue 24 years ago, and a mighty roar greeted captain Richie McCaw when he lifted the Webb Ellis trophy.It was a win to rank with the 1987 triumph, and the 1956 and 1965 Eden Park victories over the South African Springboks in the unofficial battles for world supremacy, and ensured McCaw and his men a place in the pantheon of New Zealand sporting greats.Stephen Donald, New Zealands fourth choice flyhalf who was called up to the squad during a fishing holiday, was his countrys improbable hero with a nerveless penalty which ultimately proved the difference between the sides.The victory also lifted the spirits of a nation hit by successive tragedies in the Pike River mine disaster and this years Christchurch earthquake.France, the one northern hemisphere side to consistently trouble a side with the best win-loss ratio in rugby history, played a full part in an epic finale to a spectacularly successful tournanment.Captain and man-of-the-match Thierry Dusautoir replicated his heroics of the 2007 quarter-final, when France eliminated the All Blacks in the knockout stages for the second time, by scoring Frances only try.Imanol Hardinordoquy was immense at number eight and it would have been no injustice if a team, in seeming disarray after losing to Tonga in the pool stages and beating 14-man Wales by only a single point in the semi-finals, had won their first World Cup.France greeted a blood curdling haka by linking hands and advancing in an arrow-shaped formation towards the All Blacks and then held the overwhelming favourites to a 5-0 deficit at halfime, courtesy of a try to loosehead prop Tony Woodcock who thundered through a gaping hold in the linout.Donalds penalty six minutes into the second half was followed immediately by a converted try to Dusautoir which reduced the deficit to a point.At this stage, it was France who were looking the more composed of the two sides, and Piri Weepu resurrected the nightmares of 2007 and the 1999 semi-final defeat to France at Twickenham when he kicked the restart straight into touch.Weepu had already scuffed three kickable goals in the first half which would have given New Zealand a comparatively comfortable 13-0 lead and he was quickly replaced at scrumhalf by Andy Ellis in one of three changes to the starting line-up.While the New Zealand supporters forming the majority of the 60,000 crowd at Eden Park confronted the unthinkable pain of a sixth barren World Cup campaign, McCaw and his men dug deep into their physical and mental reserves.
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