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It was the Louvre robbery that captured the attention of the Parisian public recently, but for French rugby fans, this weekend will bring back uncomfortable memories of a different kind of alleged robbery. It’s two years and three weeks or thereabouts springboks raided Stade de France But A night of rugby nirvana It ended with the host nation in mourning and South Africa going on to win their first consecutive tournament.
“For us, for the French, it’s really stuck with us,” France scrum half Maxime Lucu admitted this week. “It was our World Cup and they came and took it away from us.” Other members of the squad have rejected any sense of a story built around revenge or redemption, but a return to the crime scene will undoubtedly stir some emotions. Concluding a Rugby World Cup quarter-final weekend that may still be the high watermark of the international game, France and the Springboks came closer by just one point to a mammoth contest of brutal, terrifying intensity As South Africa regained control over the margins, From an Eben Etzebeth goalline knockdown to Cheslin Kolbe blocking Thomas Ramos’s conversion.
Their Saturday night encounter hardly needs any further selling, but it feels like a comparison of the best of the best. The new Nations Championship, the schedule for which could be confirmed next week, will soon bring relevance to this November Test window, culminating in the finals weekend, and yet this meeting of Six Nations champions and Rugby Championship winners brings together sections of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. England’s victory over Australia means France has dropped out of the top four of the World Rugby Rankings, but by almost every other metric it is up against the best of the best.
The France head coach said, “South Africa is the best team in the world, maybe even the best team ever.” Fabien Galthie Washed away. “They’ve got fifteen players chasing us. On the ground and in the air, they’re a team of hunters. How do we avoid being the hunted and become the hunter? That’s what we’re working on, that’s what’s at stake on Saturday.”
One shouldn’t overstate the pair’s superiority in a year in which both have suffered defeats, but there are ways in which they are ahead of the game. Clearly, as rugby moves towards a world in which physicality and resilience are synonyms for success, the fearsome forwards and squad adaptability present in either camp mark them as forwards in the game. Where South Africa led with a seven/one bench split, France followed suit – although neither side has gone for a gamble on this occasion, with forward fortifications hidden away, including Springboks centre-cum-flanker Andre Esterhuizen.
The selections reflect how both sides have developed depth amid, or perhaps because of, a challenging club schedule. These pages have recently detailed how South Africa have been forced to juggle with many of the top Springboks plying their trade on Northern Hemisphere club schedules but Southern Hemisphere Test itineraries, but France have also felt the pressure of a Top 14 season that runs from early September to late June. For Galthie, this meant that some of the first-choice men would travel to New Zealand for three Test matches in the summer; Three Test defeats may have been the reason for France’s decline in the rankings, but the fact remains that the second row let the All Blacks down. Described the strength of their shares.
Some of those impressing – including tighthead Regis Montagne, hillbilly by name and nature – have earned advancement to the starting side at full strength get busy Antoine Dupont is working his way back from a torn ACL during the Six Nations and continues to serve as captain. If it would be a shame not to see Scrum occupy half the possession for the Springboks, not least given how rare his meetings with the big Southern Hemisphere beasts are, there is no shortage of ingenuity in the back three. Louis Belle-BiareDamien Penaud and Thomas Ramos.
The same can be said of South Africa, who welcome Damien Willemse to complement the rich playmaking gifts of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. In a sign of the Springboks’ evolving identity, race erasmus Handre Pollard’s big match energy is increasingly being eschewed for Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s more flamboyant touches. There is no doubt that the 23-year-old has talent; This trip to Paris will be a test of his durability and nature.
However, elsewhere, the dual world champions have a clear experience advantage – they have 1101 caps under their under 23s compared to France’s 588, 99 of which have come from he is colissiErasmus insisted This is a historic cap for their captain There will be no distractions. “When those milestones come, if you make them bigger than the match, you come second,” the head coach suggested.
“He has gone through the difficult times of being a South African and has become a great leader in South Africa. His humility is something that is extraordinary to me.” One would think that if the Springboks win this battle of the best, there will be little time for humility.