France defeated South Africa 21-19 at the Stade de France on Friday night, securing their first home victory against the Springboks in 21 years. The hosts held on by their fingertips for the final 30 minutes. They achieved the win despite a depleted squad that barely won a lineout and lost almost every scrum.
The match featured a fistful of cards, freewheeling tries, intense scrummaging, and controversial decisions by coaches and officials. The evening began with a lavish pre-game production involving fireworks, flamethrowers, a multicoloured drone show, and a performance by 150 dancers.
Ten minutes into the frantic tussle, South Africa lock Lood de Jager was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle. France capitalised on the extra space when wing Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang broke through Damian Willemse’s tackle to score in the corner.
South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus had shuffled his line-up an hour before kick-off, dropping Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx, and Wilco Louw to the replacements. Erasmus deployed this bomb squad early in the 35th minute, facing a French bench with only 25 international caps among three front-row replacements.
South Africa had already pulled one try back with a rolling maul, but France scrum-half Antoine Dupont soon responded. Dupont put Louis Bielle-Biarrey through with a tumbling grubber to push France 14 points ahead.
The match then unraveled for both sides. Maxime Lucu received a yellow card for a high tackle, and Grandidier-Nkanang was also sin-binned for slapping down a pass in the French 22. In between those cautions, Jasper Wiese received a red card for an illegal clear-out.
South Africa had a try by Kurt-Lee Arendse struck off for an offside ruling. Cobus Reinach later bundled over following a rolling maul to narrow the deficit.
France clung to a seven-point lead as the crowd watched anxiously. They endured an excruciating series of scrums on their try-line while their replacement pack buckled, leading to a yellow card for Régis Montagne.
South Africa eventually broke through again, and Marx finished off another rolling maul to bring the visitors within striking distance. However, Manie Libbok missed the key conversion attempt with seven minutes left to play that would have tied the scores.
After the match, Erasmus offered a blunt assessment of the result to reporters. We weren’t just outplayed, we were out-thought, Erasmus said, adding that he would not look for positives because it feels shit.
