Only in France. After a match in which the home team's form had fluctuated through as many inexplicable peaks and troughs as it has in the past 20 years, the astonishing climax saw them display - consecutively - nonchalance, desperate pleas for another chance, passionate efforts to right the wrong when these were denied and, finally, numbed disbelief when they realised at the end that they'd got only a lousy draw.

Having looked as if they were heading towards a disappointing defeat in a game they had started so well, France had managed, with a typical flourish, to level the score at 20-20, once Nicolas Brusque had scored a fine try and François Gelez had kicked a penalty in the last minute of normal time.

France had dominated the set pieces so utterly that it seemed ridiculous that they should be fighting for a draw, but with the draw secured they pushed on for the win. As they pressed past the New Zealand 10-metre line, the All Blacks infringed at a ruck, and referee Scott Young signalled advantage.

Gelez received the ball as Young gave the signal, but rather than play on he merely stood stock still, as if to say: 'No, ref, I don't want any advantage - I want to kick.' Young, however, wasn't having any of it, and Gelez was duly flattened as he belatedly kicked the ball away.

In fact, Young then decided to give the penalty anyway, but as Gelez prepared to take it, the ball fell off its tee. He continued his run-up, but then realised halfway through that trying to kick the ball as it lay was a hopeless idea, so he stopped and looked plaintively at Young once again. This time, Young shook his head with finality - if Gelez had wanted to reset the ball, he had to ask before he went to kick it. France were stunned.

There was still a minute remaining, however, and after Damien Traille had kicked the ball ahead, Cedric Heymans had collared Christian Cullen, Serge Betsen had ripped the ball free and Raphael Ibañez had frantically driven at the All Blacks line, Young gave France yet another chance to clinch the match with a penalty at the ensuing ruck in the corner. It wasn't clear what for. It really didn't matter.

Twenty seconds remained, so Gelez stepped up for the penalty that might have delivered redemption. He looked at the posts with wide, earnest eyes, began his run-up and... pushed the ball wide. Never can a nerve-racking draw have been met with such utter silence in a stadium of 80,000 people, most of them French.

For New Zealand, it was an achievement of sorts. They are trying desperately to turn this into their very own Tour From Hell, but All Blacks don't seem to know how to wilt in the face of adversity. Never mind the fabled weakness of this touring party, they conspired to spend 30 minutes of the game with 14 men (three of them were shown the yellow card in the first half), they were given a torrid time at the scrum, and young hooker Andrew Hore buried his promising display against England the week before with an horrendous performance at the line-out.

The French, meanwhile, started the match - in front of a distinctly noisier crowd than at the end - pulling the visitors this way and that in the best of traditions. Within 10 minutes, they had inspired Kees Meeuws to throw a punch, and the All Black prop was sent to the cooler.

France immediately capitalised. Immanol Harinordoquy, a threat throughout, took the line-out that came from the resultant penalty, and Olivier Magne was driven over for a far more prosaic try than their form warranted.

But the All Blacks - in the best of southern-hemisphere traditions - handled the pressure expertly. Meeuws returned, Andrew Mehrtens kicked a penalty to pass 900 points in international rugby, and before we knew it the All Blacks were only 7-3 down.

They then took the lead when Meeuws, poetically, hurt the French with a beautiful piece of skill. From a line-out, he collected the tap down of Taine Randell, sold a dummy to Danny Lee that most of the French bought and charged through a vacant fringe defence for a try.

By now the French had gone missing, their dazzling early form a distant memory. As if to prompt them, Cullen also got himself sent to the bin, when he came from an off-side position to intercept a potentially try-scoring pass. This, though, did little to rouse the French. Gelez missed a penalty, but, when Mark Robinson was next sent to the bin for a punch in first-half injury time, shortly after Cullen had returned, Gelez landed the penalty to send the teams into the break all square.

It was New Zealand who looked the likelier to win what was becoming a frustratingly anonymous game in the second half. Although Jonah Lomu looked a pale imitation of the possessed exterminator he always is against England, the All Blacks made up for their set-piece woes by swarming all over the French in defence.

Mehrtens kicked another, before Tana Umaga looked to have secured the crucial breakthrough with his runaway try through some weak midfield tackling.

But the eccentric climax was assured, once France rediscovered themselves in the final quarter. Harinordoquy ran from the base of the scrum and released Brusque for a try that would need clarification from the video referee. Nothing, though, could clarify what was going through French minds at the end.

France: Brusque; Clerc, Castaignède, Traille, Heymans; Gelez, Galthié (capt); Crenca, Ibañez, De Villiers, Brouzet, Pelous, Betsen, Magne, Harinordoquy.

New Zealand: Cullen; Howlett, Umaga, M Robinson, Lomu; Mehrtens, Lee; France Tries: Magne, Brusque. Cons: Gelez (2). Pens: Gelez (2).
New Zealand Tries: Meeuws, Umaga. Cons: Mehrtens (2). Pens: Mehrtens (2). McDonnell, Hore, Meeuws, Williams, Mika (K Robinson 65), Randell (capt), Holah, Broomhall.

Referee: Scott Young (Australia).