Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

France edge South Africa in titanic, controversial game in Marseille

GettyImages-1244725084

France have beaten world champions South Africa by 30-26 in a brutal rugby Test in Marseille, completing a sweep of the southern hemisphere giants in the past year.

ADVERTISEMENT

Fabien Galthie’s side dug deep again a week after edging Australia by one point.

France threw away a 13-0 lead then rallied as tighthead prop Sipili Falatea burrowed over with minutes left and fullback Thomas Ramos landed a last-gasp penalty to give Les Tricolores a national record-extending 12th straight Test win.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

“I don’t know if we’re unbeatable,” flanker Anthony Jelonch said. “But last week we could have lost and again tonight, yet we didn’t.”

Prop Cyril Baille’s first-half try and perfect goalkicking from Ramos seemed to have the French in control.

But inspirational captain Siya Kolisi’s converted try and a penalty from winger Cheslin Kolbe dragged the Springboks back, despite them playing a man down after flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit’s red card in the 14th minute.

Related

The num bers were evened when captain Antoine Dupont – the world player of the year – was red-carded in the 48th for clumsily taking out an airborne Kolbe. Kolbe landed on his neck, one of several bone-jarring moments in an intense encounter.

ADVERTISEMENT

France had not beaten South Africa since 2009 and Galthie had never faced them since taking charge after the 2019 World Cup, won by the Springboks.

But since beating New Zealand last November, the French have not looked back, sweeping the Six Nations and all else before them.

“It’s magnificent,” flanker Charles Ollivon said. “But we want to keep our feet on the ground because we know what our objective is.”

He means winning the World Cup on home soil next year. France have never won it and lost three finals.

ADVERTISEMENT

They were fired up for this one at Marseille’s passionate Stade Velodrome.

Related

Du Toit was sent off for a reckless ruck clearout which broke the eye socket of centre Jonathan Danty. Referee Wayne Barnes, on his recor d 101st Test to eclipse Nigel Owens, marched him and Du Toit was in tears on the bench.

Danty also left and Yoram Moefana moved into midfield as Sekou Macalou came on. France fullback Thomas Ramos slotted a second long-rang penalty and Baille broke two tackles to plant the ball one-handed on the line midway through the first half.

At this point, a rout appeared likely, but the world champions stemmed the blue tide and turned it.

Kolbe nailed a superb sideline kick from 54 metres to make it 13-3, and the French were asleep to a rolling maul as Kolisi darted over for a converted try.

The unflappable Ramos, however, landed another penalty on the buzzer for 16-10.

Kolbe and Ramos traded more penalties early in the second half.

After Dupont’s red, the Springboks pack bullied France and freed winger Kurt-Lee Arendse in the right corner. De Klerk’s conversion from the right touchline put them ahead for the first time with 52 minutes played.

De Klerk added a penalty only for Ramos to land his sixth straight kick to make it a one-point game with 20 minutes to play.

It was scarcely believable as Macalou’s superb break led to another penalty conceded when he failed to release the ball, and flyhalf Damian Willemse became his side’s third penalty kicker of the night.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

10 Comments
G
Gilbert 721 days ago

The French try is definitely controversial but a question of judgement
Earlier the penalty which gives the Bocks 3 points against Macalou is also controversial
The 2011 World Cup was handed over to the All Blacks by a certain Craig Joubert who made nearly 20 wrong decisions
I have got over it though LOL

R
Ruaan 722 days ago

Guys, let's park the sniping about the refereeing and focus on the fact that it was a titanic, enjoyable game, and that SA did amazingly well to almost win against basically insurmountable odds after PSDT's brain fart. BTW - I'm quite happy for France to be floating on a pink cloud after barely beating an Aussie side who lost to Italy yesterday, and then just about seeing off the Boks while playing with a man advantage for such a large part of the match.

The Boks lost because Du Toit lost his marbles, and because we struggled with the exits and lineouts. The French try at the end wasn't a double movement - he got driven over the line by his supporting players. The Willie forward pass looked debatable to me, but Willemse was still in his own half with multiple French defenders covering. I'm not so sure about the decision at the end where Mauvaka (maybe Fofana?) was told to release the tackled player - he still competed for the ball without ever really disengaging and should have been penalized. But that's about it.

Nitpick all you want, but if we're going to throw our toys out of the pram when arguably the world's best ref makes the odd mistake, we're a long way off maintaining perspective.

S
Snash 723 days ago

No mention of the double movement try? Ever awarded in the championship? Barnes seemed intent on making the quickest rather than the right decision, officious to say the least

a
andre 723 days ago

I must say, the European writers on this platform surely know how to word their scripts when it comes to SA . The same can be said of refereeing when it comes to SA. I wixh the game could progress to automated,less biased , decisions depending on whom the decision is against. Firstly " france through away the lead " why not state what we saw....a gritty fight back from SA with 14 against 15.
2ndly ...why was our no 8 sent off after 1 infringment when france had multiple a few minutes before without any repurcussion.
3rdly ....why was the last try by france not reviewed on big screen by france ?
4th ...the french was in off side position in last 2 minutes....no penalty to SA.

The world cup in France is going to be a biased litter of invorrect decsions , costing 1 team the world cup

Load More Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

O
Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING England player ratings vs New Zealand | Autumn Nations Series 2024 England player ratings vs New Zealand | Autumn Nations Series 2024
Search