France cling on for furious victory against South Africa after Dupont sizzles

Detailed summary

At the end of it all, somehow, France had won by two points, 21-19, in their first victory against the Springboks at their national stadium in 21 years. After 10 minutes of…

Friday night at the Stade de France may just be the best show in sport. The French had laid on a full Cecil B DeMille production: fireworks, flame-throwers, floodlights, a multicoloured drone show involving a three-storey-tall cockerel that then reassembled itself into a beating red, blue and white heart before transforming into a vast tricolore along with 150 dancers carrying LEDs who performed to an ear-splitting choral rendition of Madonna’s Like a Prayer. Astonishingly enough, what came after actually lived up to it.

It had twists and turns, a scattering of superb performances from some of the finest players in the game, a fistful of red and yellow cards, fantastic freewheeling tries and several agonisingly intense stretches of scrummaging and defence, a clutch of hugely controversial decisions by both coaches and the referee, and one crucial missed conversion. At the end of it all, somehow, France had won by two points, 21-19, in their first victory against the Springboks at their national stadium in 21 years.

After 10 minutes of frantic tussle, the half turned when Lood de Jager was sent to the sinbin for a high tackle on Maxime Lucu. France took advantage of the precious extra inches of space his absence left in the Springbok defence. Their wing Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, born in Bromley but irresistibly French in the way he plays, came down the left to take a crossfield kick from Antoine Dupont in the South African 22 and was checked at the last second by Ethan Hooker. Play drifted away but moments later the ball was back with Grandidier-Nkanang again and this time he dived through to score in the corner.

Their next was a little less slick. Dupont lashed a 50-22 and France tried to spray the ball wide when South Africa checked their maul. Yoram Moefana’s pass hit his team-mate Kalvin Gourgues flush in the face and ricocheted away over the try line, where Théo Attissogbe pounced to touch it down.

Earlier in the week Galthié had dismissed the idea that he and his…

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Opening of the article, excerpted from The Irish Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.