South Africa shatters France’s dream by a small point

2023-10-15 22:56:24

South Africa eliminated France 29-28 to advance to the semi-finals. A cruel scenario for the French who dreamed of a coronation at home.

Published on: 10/15/2023 – 10:56 p.m. Modified on: 10/15/2023 – 11:07 p.m.

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Twenty-four hours after the difficult Ireland – New Zealand, the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup gave birth to a second Homeric match: France lost its battle at home on Wednesday October 15 against the world champions in title, South Africa. The latter will challenge England in the semi-final, victorious over Fiji.

As in 2015, as in 2019, the Blues did not manage to get past the quarter-finals of the World Cup. But unlike the two previous editions, the disappointment is immense as Fabien Galthié’s men seemed cut out to seek, during “their” World Cup, their first world title.

Also readThe semi-final program

France’s second home defeat

South Africa are only the second nation to knock out France at the Stade de France since the start of Galthié’s tenure.

Fabien Galthié expected during the week to have to respond to a strategic challenge launched by Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, the duo at the head of South Africa and, in this regard, he was not disappointed.

If his players very quickly took control of the match thanks to Cyril Baille after a maul carrying away the entire Springbok pack (7-0, 4th), they were then picked up by the South African strategy, simple and ultra-effective.

Errors on high balls

Twice, Manie Libbok, the “playful” opening half of South Africa, shot a ball towards the left wing of Louis Bielle-Biarrey, muddled on the reception by Gaël Fickou then Cameron Woki, finally captured by Kurt-Lee Arendse and Damian de Allende for two tries with practically zero passes.

In the first period, the Boks played bok, relying on a very aggressive defense, a very effective occupation game and ending up feeding on small French mistakes thanks in particular to the dazzling performance of their wingers, Arendse and Cheslin Kolbe, untenable.

Then they unfolded their plan in the second half, leaving the ball to the French most of the time, relying on their iron defense to recover balls and penalties.

Meanwhile, their second fly-half, Handré Pollard, the gunner, not the player, had come into play to send the Blues home as soon as they got too close to the South African goal line.

If the Blues, sure of their strength, did not deviate from their game plan, thinking that they would end up making the Boks fold, the small hand faults, the small delays in the releases and their inferiority in the sector of the closed melee prevented them until the end.

The fight in the second period, of rare intensity, like the day before between Ireland and New Zealand, finally turned to the advantage of the impassable Boks.

And like the All Blacks, South Africa is on course for a fourth world title. For the French, it’s still a failure.

With AFP