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South Africa Showed the resilience of all their world champions by coming back strongly from 14-6 down Lock Lund de Jager was dismissed in the first half Collide France 32-17 in a fierce autumn international match on Saturday.
knock a man down for a whole second springboks Les Bleus withstood early pressure before being overwhelmed by their physicality and composure, and silenced a raucous Stade de France The crowd is hoping to avenge France’s World Cup misery.
Two years after a painful 29-28 World Cup quarter-final defeat to the Springboks on home soil, Les Bleus looked keen to improve even without their injured captain Antoine Dupont.
But France, now on the losing side of four matches in a row, came under pressure as their discipline disintegrated despite reducing the Springboks to 14 men on the stroke of halftime.
“The credit goes to the entire team,” the South Africa coach said. race erasmus Told in a press conference. “Some people say they’re getting older. They’re getting wiser and calmer.”
their french counterparts Fabien Galthie Regretful at missing opportunities for my team.
“Around the 60th minute we had three clear chances where we should have scored, then we conceded several penalties and were forced to defend our line until a yellow card and a try,” he said.
The France winger looked irresistible early on Damien Penaud Scored twice to become his country’s all-time leading try scorer with 40, and overtook Serge Blanco’s long-standing record.
However, careless infringements and a costly yellow card handed the initiative to the Springboks, who punished every mistake ruthlessly.
South Africa fought back with tries from Kobus Reinach, Andre Esterhuizen, Grant Williams and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who also scored two penalties and three conversions.
It all started brightly for France.
full back Thomas Ramos After four minutes a perfectly weighted chip was sent over the defense which Penaud gathered to score. The winger struck again soon afterwards, diving into the corner to double the lead, and when De Jager was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Ramos France looked to be in complete control despite leading by just one point.
Then came South Africa’s spectacular revival through a mixture of clinical attack and iron discipline.
France winger Louis Belle-Biare was blamed for a deliberate knock-on and the world champions advanced.
Esterhuizen powered through a maul after deciding to go for a lineout after being awarded a penalty, before Williams darted through the scattered defense for another try as the momentum quickly changed.
Following France’s defeat and conceding consecutive penalties, Feinberg-Mngomezulu made a remarkable comeback, rounding out the defense and slipping over the line before converting his try.
South Africa have now defeated France in nine of their last 10 matches.
France next face Fiji in Bordeaux on Saturday while South Africa travel to Italy.
reuters