Rugby’s rich history reaches down the decades but was the wing’s spectacular score against
Ireland the best by an Englishman at Twickenham?
Close your eyes and the shape of it should start to come back to you, even if the details are a little hazy after all these years. It was Fabien Galthié’s kick, a chip into New Zealand’s half in the semi-final of the 1999 Rugby
World Cup. And it was Andrew Mehrtens who came running across to cover it, while Taine Randall tracked back from the front. Christophe Dominici started five yards behind, but was gaining all the time. The bounce was loopy and awkward and for a split second everything slowed down while the ball hung in mid-air between the three of them. Then Dominici reached for it and everything speeded up again as he pulled it down and raced away again. The knave of hearts had made off with the Queen’s tarts.
Mehrtens, wrongfooted, threw himself after the winger. But Dominici swerved just enough to slip his grasp. Mehrtens flew past and ended up face down in the grass. Then Dominici was gone, well beyond Randall’s reach by the time he crossed the tryline. It gave
France the lead and it turned one of the greatest games ever played. It is a good way to remember Dominici, who died on Tuesday, at the age of 48.