Rugby's Most Violent Match | France vs All Blacks 1986 "The Battle of Nantes"

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[@johnthomas7038]

Fluid, flowing rugby, not the stop-start, regimented stuff we see so often today.

[@paulmulryne8405]

I miss this rugby.

[@michaelpatterson8799]

Brings me to tears real rugby

[@martinlloyd9131]

I remember watching this game and being struck by how fast and aggressive the game was. I’m fairly certain this was the game that Buck Shelford had 4 teeth knocked out and his scrotum ripped at the bottom of a ruck. Unbelievably he was stitched up and returned to the game.

[@bedcurt]

One of the significant changes is releasing the ball when tackled, nowadays you can take up to 5 seconds to finally release whilst in those days it was instantaneous other wise you’d get penalised or have a good ol’ shoeing

[@TS-bn7zt]

Today’s rugby is a pale reflection of this. Thanks for the video.👍

[@Moggy471]

When Rugby was the best sport on the planet.

[@cyrilkellerer3174]

Avec les vieilles protections de poteaux a l'ancienne!!Gros coeur,gros jeu!

[@robdykes3659]

What type of sport is this!!never seen this before!!!! LOL,what real rugby used to look like ,none of these have had dementia,or loss of memory, or had any form of disability from playing hard tough rugger,head high,s ,late tackles,off the ball play ,hard tackles,brutal mauls and rucks ,great stuff

[@indianjoe52]

American football players should watch this, much tougher than their stop start rubbish

[@donnybrascocoliogne819]

Wow...hope the 2023 RWC Opener mirror images this Classick game between the mighty All Black's🇳🇿 and Alez Bleu France 🇫🇷 🍾🍾🍾🍾

[@paulgrieve7031]

Vive La France!!!

[@williamlaidlaw6275]

Proper rugby. No faffin’ about. Jock Hobbs = Legend.

[@patrickdavis8874]

People look at like I’ve gone mad when I say that I wouldn’t thank anyone for a ticket to an international these days. I try to explain that the game has become too formulaic. Perhaps I should just refer them to this clip!

[@Nineteenseventy2]

3:06 The french forward flying into the ruck, Shoulder first at speed, no binding. Boom. This was warfare, it's why the win in the 87 WC was so good because France beat the crap out of the All Blacks in this game. Ask any from this era. This game right here was the toughest ever. There were "suggestions" from a reporter later that a few of the french forwards were on a Meth like substance, never really proven, either way, France played like men possessed and tore the All Blacks a new one.

[@softwareofexcellence]

It was rumored a few uppers were consumed before the match.

[@xpat73]

Savage.

[@ldfreitas9437]

Interesting that there are some hard tackles, but the head isn't struck. It could be why players from this time aren't having the same problems as those who played in the next era when the laws changed and the game morphed into something more like rugby league.

[@markc3258]

A lot less games back then . The weight of the players is a lot less than today also .

[@ldfreitas9437]

@@markc3258 Agree. They were amateurs, and even those getting some "boot" money were not getting enough of it to live on.

[@mrtecsom6951]

@@markc3258 Tackling high is a recent innovation because offloading came into the game instead of setting up rucks and mauls so players targeted the upper body to stop the offload and continuity although nobody told that useless idiot Jack Nowell about ever keeping the ball alive

[@jeffhay1395]

Brilliant game

[@Olm9]

Pass backwards and kick ahead.. any head.

[@johnduncan9253]

Halfa Stone: underrated

[@FergusHodgson]

Yeah, he is one of the players forgotten from All Black history, but my father always rated him.

[@dantaylor897]

This game is famous in NZ for all the wrong reasons,not because we lost either,there was no food tampering? 🤣 Possibly some nose candy or something similar was proposed? They had that look in their eyes? 🤔😂 Good on them our boys got hurt big time but it cost you next game after Pine Tree had a word. 👊🇳🇿 Buck had a loose teste & Kirwan spewed at half time looking at it! 🤣 I know it was Champ! Dirty Eric 😂

[@pauldurkee4764]

From memory listening to Wayne Shelford talking about that game, it was Daniel Dubroca who caused the injury to his vital parts. Earlier in the game he had been knocked unconscious by Jean Pierre Garuet,but carried on playing, very tough man Mr Shelford. 👍

[@philloosehead8335]

Those were the days 😊 great rugby no place for snowflakes.

[@kevinbalfour1728]

This was in the days before drug testing. I've spoken to one of the All Blacks who told me that a lot of the French forwards were high on meth.

[@witetrshtrsh7470]

Freakin game On bro

[@thetamihana2561]

French juiced up

[@PJVV-ps9be]

A bit different to what we see today!

[@Kevin-lf4xx]

What a contrast with the rubbish of the modern era.

[@ianhawdon3680]

Too right

[@BrunoDECOURCY]

The AB number 11 at 1:21 did suffer I think…

[@NapoleonBonapartepdrquay]

These were amateur sportsmen in the sense that remuneration was either not paid or paid unofficially. The international governors' as well as the governers' from participating countries nonetheless derived high profits from various sources such as ticket sales, media rights and advertising. Therefore auditing and accounting was minimal and taxation largely avoided. Winners and losers in a closed sport. Why?

[@jacobwinn2765]

Allez Les Emphetamine's!

[@pauldombroski608]

Thank goodness there was no drug testing in 86 as a few French lads would be in trouble 💉🇨🇵

[@robdykes3659]

The whole lot probably,guys punching brick walls on the way to the pitch!!

[@ldfreitas9437]

Eric Champ was a dirty player.

[@jeffbruno6222]

Mais non, un grand joueur