By this point, Shelford had lost three teeth, received a sucker punch to the head, been knocked unconscious, and absorbed a boot to the balls. The French had already scored two penalties, and a few minutes later they broke through with two consecutive tries to make the score 16–3 in their favor. The All Blacks were limping, the crowd was howling, and the referee seemed unable to stanch the spiraling violence. The bleaker the situation became, however, the more vigorously Shelford competed—running, passing, tackling, and rucking as if he thought he could win the match single-handedly. The
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