France hoping Antoine Dupont at outhalf can help change fortunes against South Africa

Résumé détaillé

Injury crisis makes the job harder for Fabien Galthié whose side have beaten Springboks once in their last 10 meetings ...

The final of this inaugural Nations Championship is two weeks away, but regardless of who makes it through to the last match at Twickenham there’s an irresistible sense that the two best teams from either side of the competition will go head-to-head at the Stade de France this Friday night.

France, back-to-back Six Nations champions, play South Africa, back-to-back world champions, and the one team that the French – and anyone else with dreams of becoming the world’s best team – need to find a way to beat in the 12 months before the Springboks take a run at winning a third consecutive World Cup.

France have been looking for one of those for a long time now. This is not an even-sided rivalry. South Africa have won nine of the 10 games the two teams have played in the last 15 years, including the last five in Paris.

England, Ireland, even Wales all have better head-to-head records against the Springboks in that same stretch of time. France’s one win was in Marseille in 2022, and whatever good it did them was undone a year later when the Springboks knocked them out of their home World Cup in the quarter-finals.

“We tend to get up for the French team, out of respect,” said Rassie Erasmus this week. “It doesn’t take a lot to get the team up. We’ve spoken about it. We enjoy the way the French people get behind their team, this cauldron [Stade de France], it’s not something a lot of our players have experienced so when they get the opportunity they want to put their best foot forward, to represent themselves, their families and their country.”

Erasmus didn’t want to talk about whether his side were favourites or not, after all, he said, what difference does it make? “The only bad thing about being favourites is you might get complacent. And we are definitely not complacent.”

That World Cup quarter-final finished 29-28. The French got so close, but because it was hard to imagine they could play any better they somehow ended up feeling further away than ever.

“What can I say about…

Début de l'article, extrait de The Irish Times. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.