Let's face facts. Not many people know how to face up to the Haka. It's a confrontational, aggressive, huge beginning to a game.

There's been all kinds of average responses to it over the years, from hiding and huddling in a corner, to manning up and facing it courageously in vain.

I'm thinking though, none has been so smart as the French response. To man up, right on the line, close to the All Blacks, and wearing from left to right the red, white and blue, right there, in the face of the te wehi, the awesome power.

The Dropkicks picked it, and think it may well have been the greatest response ever to a Haka. Respect, from one rugby playing nation to another.

Because... well, because... in those last eight minutes it was like the Tricolore itself defended you, against the might of the All Blacks. That line that didn't break. 

Doesn't make us any less pissed off, but respect, all the same.