The French talk about “the dagger in the heart” that they experienced on the night of 15 October 2023, when their dream of winning the World Cup for the first time and on home soil was ruined by the Springboks. South Africans talk about it as a magical night.
A 29-28 win for Siya Kolisi’s team reflects how close it was, but if you ever deign to watch the first half again, what you are left with is wonderment that the Boks were still in the game at all at the halfway point.
It looked like being a long night for the visitors when they were bossed in the forward exchanges like they normally boss opposing teams, and the ease with which France got momentum and shrugged off tacklers suggested it could become embarrassing.
However, every time the French scored the Boks struck back with a try of their own, and much of it centred around the X-factor of the starting flyhalf Manie Libbok.
A week later against England in the semifinal he was exposed in a wet weather game and Handre Pollard’s nerveless place kicking earned him the No 10 jersey for the final against the All Blacks. With the Boks going for a 7/1 bench split, Libbok fell out.
Libbok is now back in the country where he made his international debut, which was in the last minutes of the 2022 game in Marseille. France sneaked that 30-26, but it was a game marred by the early red card to Pieter-Steph du Toit. It was before a red card became a 20 minute sanction so the Boks had to play almost the entire match without their tireless blindside flank.
LIBBOK WILL HAVE FOND MEMORIES
Libbok should have fond memories of his last visit to Stade de France because he did play a big though largely unrecognised role in that win, but this time there’s been some change to the script. It’s not a case of whether he and Pollard will dovetail again, with his wizardry on attack being supplemented by Pollard’s cool game management and clutch kicking later on, but where he will fit into the game as part of what is now a three-pronged Bok fly half arsenal.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who has started the last four games with Libbok performing the role of finisher, has been added to the mix - and as his Man of the Match performances in two of the last three matches confirm, he is quite some addition.
SEEDS OF EVOLUTiON WERE SOWN IN MARSEILLE
But there is more than that, as Libbok reminded us from Paris this week, that adds to the Boks’ threat to France in comparison with that night just over two years ago. He didn’t mention his name, but Tony Brown has brought an additional dynamic to a Bok attacking game that started to become more adventurous when they ran the ball back at France in Marseille three years ago.
That night was arguably the night where the seeds for the Bok evolution that we’ve seen since the World Cup were sown, and it may just provide the extra edge the South Africans will need in what is expected to be another tight game.
“Our main way of playing is still the same, but we have tweaked things here and there to expand our game and give the opposition different pictures, and it’s certainly helped us,” said Libbok.
On a night where they will be missing the powerful scrumming of Ox Nche, and with the man who would have been the back-up, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, unavailable because of his suspension, that evolution in the Bok game could just be the point of difference the South Africans will be looking for.
The justification, if you like, for the changes that have been made amidst some occasional growing pains.
GOOD REASON FRENCH FORWARDS ARE FEARED
The Boks need to find another way to win on nights when they don’t completely dominate the forward battle and this, just like the first half in the RWC quarterfinal, might be one of those nights. As Bok lock Lood de Jager, who wasn’t there in 2023 due to injury, has noted, there is a good reason that the France pack is highly respected.
“They have a big pack and are generally very confrontational, so it is going to be a big challenge for us to see where we are on Saturday,” said De Jager.
Sound familiar? It is the sort of thing that the Bok opponents invariably say ahead of a game against the world champions. Like 2022, when much of the talk was about how to deal with the French kicking game, the buildup comes across as a battle of like versus like.
And as France is the one country that boasts similar depth to South Africa, it does make predicting the result a bit of a lottery. There is massive expectation of a France riposte to what happened in 2023, with the hurt that nation experienced apparently being next level, to the extent that even one of the Boks involved that night, the now retired prop Steven Kitshoff, has predicted a France win.
He told The Times podcast that he expected France to win by one point, then adjusted it to four. Whether that was an attempt to withhold any motivational fuel from the French only Kitshoff will know, but the general trend of matches between the two nations in the past decade or so suggests it is right to expect a close result.
In the game before the Marseille game in 2022, in Paris in 2018, Rassie Erasmus’ first meeting with the French as head coach saw his team relying on a last gasp Bongi Mbonambi try. And the year before that, in Allister Coetzee’s second season in charge, the Boks won by a solitary point.
South Africa have generally won in the meetings since 2010, when Peter de Villiers’ team thrashed an understrength France team in Cape Town on a weekend that coincided with the start of the FIFA World Cup, with 2022 being the only exception.
Results between Boks and France since 2010
2010 Cape Town - South Africa won 42-17
2013 Paris - South Africa won 19-10
2017 Pretoria - South Africa won 37-14
Durban - South Africa won 37-15
2017 November tour Paris - South Africa won 18-17
2018 Paris - South Africa won 29-26
2022 Marseille - France won 30-26
2023 RWC quarterfinal Paris -South Africa won 29-28
Overall in history of games dating back to 1913 - - Played 46, SA won 28, France won 12, 6 draws