France captain Thierry Dusautoir was sad but proud after his side’s loss to New Zealand in Sunday’s World Cup final.
The skipper’s try dragged his side back into it, with Francois Trinh-Duc’s conversion bringing it back to 8-7 after a Tony Woodcock try and a Stephen Donald penalty.
With over half an hour to go France piled an onslaught onto the All Blacks, who grew more and more nervous. However they just held on. Nevertheless, Dusautoir praised every single one of his team-mates, saying on ITV: "I'm very proud of my boys for what they did during the World Cup.
“We lost two games in the pool (against New Zealand and Tonga) and we came to the final so I'm really proud of them.”
On his side’s battling display after being such resounding second favourites with most people for the Eden Park decider, the flanker added: "We read a lot of stuff this week. I hope we showed that we were able to play rugby and play the final of the Rugby World Cup."