AFP/Auckland

France’s Vincent Clerc (L) jumps next to fly half Francois Trinh Duc as they take part in a training session at the Takapuna Rugby Club in Auckland during the 2011 Rugby World Cup yesterday
Vincent Clerc gave voice to the fears of millions of New Zealand rugby fans by insisting yesterday that France could upset the odds and beat the All Blacks in Sunday’s World Cup final here at Eden Park.
Most pundits have all but written off the chances of a France team beaten twice in pool play, including a 37-17 defeat by the All Blacks, spoiling the hosts’ party this weekend and denying rugby superpower New Zealand only a second title since they beat the French in the inaugural 1987 final, also at Eden Park.
Indeed so confident is one leading bookmaker, he has already paid out punters who’ve backed New Zealand to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy.
But France wing Clerc, whose six touchdowns make him the tournament’s joint leading try scorer along with England’s Chris Ashton, insisted the final was anything but a foregone conclusion.
“They have their reasons for being confident,” Clerc said of the All Blacks. “They have put in some great performances and now maybe it is our turn to play our cards.”
“We are capable of playing the match we need to play and we are capable of beating the All Blacks.”
France knocked New Zealand out of both the 1999 and 2007 World Cups, defeats that caused something akin to collective national depression in the ‘Shaky Isles’, and Clerc said: “I think we are drawn to difficulty and I think it allows us to bring out the best in ourselves and it allows us to believe in the impossible.
“We have not always played perfect rugby but we have beat them in the past.”
The All Blacks have been doing their best not to get caught up in the hype created by their supposedly ‘inevitable’ looming victory and New Zealand assistant coach Steve Hansen said yesterday: “We know we’re going to have to play really, really well because the French will play really well.
“Like us, they’ve earned the right to arrive at Eden Park and play at 9pm on Sunday, added Hansen, who insisted he’d given no thought to succeeding All Blacks head coach Graham Henry, set to step down after Sunday’s match.
“It’s a two-horse race and both teams will be doing their utmost to win it.”
Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, who has an online offshoot in New Zealand, said his firm had already paid more than NZ$1mn (US$800,000) to punters who’d bet on an All Blacks win.
“It’s so one-sided the final, I mean France must be the worst team ever to reach a World Cup final and New Zealand are absolutely awesome this time around, so we’ve paid out already, taken our chances,” Power said.
“If they do happen to win and are the banana skin for New Zealand that they’ve been in the past, then we’re going to be left with some very expensive egg on our faces.”
Star fly-half Dan Carter’s tournament-ending groin injury in the pool stage prompted some fears that New Zealand’s chances of World Cup glory had disappeared into the operating theatre with him.
But Test rugby’s all-time leading points scorer, who said Thursday his surgery had been a success and that he was planning to return to action next season, hailed the form of Aaron Cruden.
The young fly-half is only playing at No 10 for the All Blacks this World Cup after Carter’s replacement, Colin Slade, also suffered a tournament-ending groin injury.
“I’ve been really impressed with Aaron,” Carter said ahead of the New Zealand team announcement here on Friday. “He’s making the most of his opportunity.”
Carter, in a surprising choice of words given the way his World Cup was curtailed, also considered it his national duty to put New Zealand on France alert.
“People always write them off, but come the World Cup they seem to grow another leg,” he said.
All Blacks’ Hansen cagey on life after the World Cup
Auckland: The future only goes as far as Sunday’s rugby World Cup final against France, according to New Zealand assistant coach Steve Hansen.
The 52-year-old, however, was not predicting the end of life, the universe and everything, merely trying to deflect questions about his plans after the World Cup final between the All Blacks and France at Eden Park on Sunday.
Hansen along with Graham Henry and Wayne Smith have created a formidable coaching triumvirate since they were appointed in 2004, winning 87 of 102 tests, though with Smith stepping down afterwards, Hansen has been widely touted as heir apparent to Henry, should the 65-year-old retire after the final.
“It’s not even something I’m thinking about,” Hansen told reporters yesterday. “Four years ago we got knocked out in the quarter-final of the World Cup and the three coaches made a decision to try and re-get the job and we did that and were lucky to be re-appointed.
“Last week we were lucky enough to earn the right to turn up on Sunday at 9 p.m. to try and win this thing. 
“At the moment that’s the only thing I’m thinking about. I don’t really care about what happens after Sunday night.”
Hansen’s caution about possibly succeeding Henry may be understandable. The trio’s re-appointment after losing to France in the 2007 World Cup quarter-finals was controversial, with many in New Zealand supporting Robbie Deans’s ticket.