FRANCE EDGED SOUTH Africa 30-26 in the Autumn Nations Series in Marseille on Saturday after both sides had leading players shown red cards for dangerous play.
The Springboks’ 2019 World Rugby Player of the year Pieter-Steph du Toit was sent off inside the first quarter-of-an-hour before last year’s award winner and captain Antoine Dupont suffered the same fate after the break for the home side.
Les Bleus, next year’s Rugby World Cup hosts, laid down a marker with a win over the Webb Ellis trophy holders less than 10 months out from the tournament.
France head coach Fabien Galthie kept the same starting line-up from last weekend’s win over Australia, the country’s record 11th straight victory.
After the smoke from the pre-match show lifted, Springboks captain Siya Kolisi came out of the tunnel sprinting in front of the 65,000 full house, reminiscent of when he became the first black player to lead his country in June 2018.
Thomas Ramos kicked a penalty to make it 3-0 to the hosts before du Toit’s moment of madness after just 12 minutes as he headbutted Jonathan Danty at a ruck.
Galthie was forced to re-shuffle his back-line with Danty off for a head injury assessment as flanker Sekou Macalou came onto the wing and Yoram Moefana moved to centre.
Galthie’s outfit took the ascendancy and Ramos added a second penalty to make it 6-0 after 17 minutes before Cyril Baille crashed over just after the quarter mark.
Ramos slotted the extras to make it 13-0 with the Webb Ellis trophy holders stunned.
Winger Cheslin Kolbe scored a penalty to make it 13-3 after 25 minutes to calm the away side’s nerves.
Kolisi’s pre-game passion lifted to another level on the half-hour mark as he spun away from a rolling maul to slide over, then celebrated by pointing to the sky, before Kolbe kicked the additional points to make it 13-10.
With things finely balanced and the Boks calmed after du Toit’s red card, Ramos was successful with a third penalty which made it 16-10 at the break.
- Uncle Falatea -
Kolbe and Ramos traded penalties after the interval as France led 19-13 with 35 minutes remaining.
Dupont then followed Du Toit as he took out Kolbe in the air from a Faf de Klerk kick with the Boks camped inside Les Bleus’ 22m.
After a second lineout Willie le Roux found Kurt-Lee Arendse with a sublime pass before scrum-half de Klerk slotted the touchline conversion to make it 20-19 with less than half an hour to play.
Dupont’s opposite number De Klerk, having taken over the kicking duties from Kolbe, off for a head injury assessment, and Ramos exchanged shots at goal to leave the score at 23-22 to set up a tense final quarter.
De Klerk was subbed off before Damian Willemse made it 26-22 with a penalty.
After three pick and gos on the South Africa line, replacement prop Sipili Falatea buried over, two phases after his nephew Yoram Moefana had broken the defensive line.
Barnes’ checked the try with his video referee before Ramos missed the conversion leaving the score 27-26 with four minutes to go.
France’s 12th straight victory was sealed with less than two minutes on the clock as Ramos kicked a penalty from 45m to stake their claim for next year’s World Cup.
I’m sure SA fans and coaching staff will react to this with grace and humility.
@Peter Denham: that was top class rugby (two weeks in a row)
Was it not a triple movement for the try ?
I think South Africa come out of that game the better..
@Andrew Hurley: TMO went missing mysteriously. Typical French
@Andrew Hurley: I feel rugby decisions always balance out, whether in the game or in another game. So I would probably feel the French player didn’t stop moving forward, he never lifted his feet or his knees and was driven over by his team mates On another day that will be called a double movement. In a similar way kolbes tip tackle last week was given a yellow even though he changed his grip and followed through. You could very reasonably have given a red card for that tackle, you could easily call that try a double movement, but i feel that both decisions are actually relatively fair.
Gutted we lost that but my my, what a game and what a show from the boks showing what they can actually do…. Absolutely so proud of the boks tonight …that was a hell of a tussle, we played like gladiators… The backline creating and forwards dispay pummelling them was superb…. … See…. We can throw it around and create.. Absolutely proper proud of that and my country…. Ps ignore rassies next video … Wayne Barnes was really good :)
@Stuart Collins: I thought the boks were better team most of the French scores came when they had an extra man. If you compared the movement of winning try to that of kellegher against NZ last year then that try should not have counter. Your point re Rassies video is very relevant I am pretty sure refs will stick together and punish the team more for it. You only have to listen to the way was dealing with South African playerw questioning his decisions compared to French. At one stage he gave out about players roaring offside and kolisi said that’s our players shouting at each other.
@Stuart Collins: I thought you were resident in Ireland?
We are in for some rugby world cup……
Highlight of the game for me was Barnes telling off the camerman for repeatedly swinging around him and getting in his face near the end of the game. Never seen that before and I found that rather hilarious.
Dupont red was the correct call but the rule needs to be looked at. He only had eyes for the ball, surely classifies as some form of mitigation. Struggling to remember as gruelling a test match. Just a complete war of attrition.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: If you are going to compete for a high ball, you have to jump. Dupont did not jump and that was the factor. Because by not doing that, you are risking the safety of the other player also competing, especially if they themselves jump. It’s every player’s instinct to jump in competing for a high ball.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: Basically it doesn’t need looking at. Because intention does not matter in this situation. There is still a high level of control and responsibility within the player that takes the other in the air by not jumping.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: It’s not unreasonable to have a degree of sympathy for Dupont. It was a flattish kick coming across him and he would have caught it had Kolbe not jumped up and kneed him in the head.
Great game. Was enthralling
I thought that the SA fans would show a bit more graciousness after that game. They played better and the red card can’t be argued with, right? Wrong. The SA fans have cemented their status as the worst losers and biggest whingers in the game.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: what are you on about. Sounds like you are the only one whinging…
@Stuart Collins: ye are in fairness
@Stuart Collins: TO be honest Stuart, Gearoid isn’t entirely wrong, as much as it did sound like he was whinging himself. I was watching the game on a stream and in and around the end of the game, many Saffas were leaving very negative comments, heavily criticising the referee, as they do pretty regularly, but they also went in hard on the coaching staff. Sure, every fan is guilty of doing that whatever team they support, but personally, i’ve never seen a game where the Saffas do not give out about the referee when they lose.
The closest I came to seeing a game where the Saffas did acknowledge they were completely outplayed and blamed nobody else was the Munster game. It was there, but it was far less frequent I thought.
@Paddy Waggon: maybe just a little bit…… now and again… Especially After a test match…….. You are really killing my argument :)
@Criiochúr Daniel Daithí O’Chathail: man, what you have got to understand is that rugby is a religion in South Africa.. Losing is not acceptable… We will blame the pope if we lose a game of rugby :) take it with a pinch of salt..instead of getting upset arou d what may seem arrogance rather take the piss out of us… We love the banter…… Don’t take the ranting and ravi g too seriously.. We are just very patio ate and cocksure about us being the best rugby nation….
@Stuart Collins: we love the game but love the challenge
@Stuart Collins: I get where you are coming from Stuart. I myself always hate the thought of losing. But it’s very unhealthy if you believe you must win every single game. It creates a very bad atmosphere amongst the team, the coaches and the fanbase, and can lead to a very serious disconnect.
Losing happens whether you like it or not. Sometimes it’s not a bad thing if it happens against a top quality side, because it forces that very team to try figure out themselves how they can do better.
And I do notice occasionally, the Saffas do get a bit of stick when they give out. I don’t get involved, but I sit there thinking, ‘Ye are asking for it, lads’. XD
@Criiochúr Daniel Daithí O’Chathail: but like I say, take the piss out of us.. If anybody can. The Irish can… Growing up in South Africa there were only ever two teams in Rugby as far as we were concerned . South africa and New Zealand …… I remember watching tapes of the greatest rugby matches ever and they were always the battle of the giants being sa and nz….. So yes we have an expectation to be the best….. Was in the aviva last week with South africans and Irish around me and my the banter was brilliant….
@Stuart Collins: what am I on about? Check out literally any single South African Rugby page on Facebook, including all the official ones. At least 80% of the commentors are crying about the refereeing. I follow Rugby pages of all the top teams and SA are the only fans where you see this level of whinging. Yes every team in the world has fans who’ll moan, including Ireland, but nowhere to this extent. I am happy to list about a dozen pages on here for you if you don’t want to go to the bother of typing but a 5 second Facebook search will bring up a multitude of pages. My challenge to you is to come back with one just one where the majority of comments were not blaming the ref, again, like the did in the irish match.
@Stuart Collins: in fairness though Rassie does set the standard. He was at it again with his videos this morning, it’s almost like he’s trying to get world rugby to sanction him. It’s annoying because SA are capable of going out and smashing every team next year and winning again. The whole attitude of there being some global conspiracy between world rugby and the refs to make them lose, and yes I’ve read this conspiracy several times, doesn’t do you any good.
Author needs to differentiate the difference between a headbutt and flying into a ruck and making head contact. Nasty challenge , both red cards no option for Wayne Barnes.
@Mark Sheehan: actually don’t believe PSTD had any intention of hitting the ruck he was just trying to get up and got pushed by smith. It’s definitely a red but it possibly smith who should’ve got it. It was his reckless act that caused it
@Barry Newell: actually just seen the close up angle and take that all back
Great game. But i wouldn’t be saying France putting down a marker. South Africa had to play 69 minutes with 14 men. Plus taking of Faff de Klerk being substituted v was a brainless idea. I thought once France went to 14 men he was running the game.