The victory, the offensive bonus, and six tries scored for the launch of the competition in front of the public at Eden Park in Auckland. Summed up like this, the XV of France ticked all the boxes when it entered the running in this World Cup in New Zealand with this success (40-5) against South Africa on Saturday. But no one in the tricolor ranks had too much heart to parade after the victory. The fault with this frustrating impression left by moment vis-a-vis the “Springboks Women”.
Faced with an opponent far from displaying the references of his male counterpart, the Blues quickly scored three tries, from the 17th minute of play. But the end of the first period was punctuated by far too many approximations and balls fallen that the South Africans were outnumbered. It took until the 67th minute and the fourth try scored by scrum half Laure Sansus to secure the offensive bonus.
“We made a big start but behind we made small hand mistakes, we are a little inside, regrets the captain of the day, Céline Ferer. They take over us, we also have a big team in front. We are in a mythical stadium, so we felt a little bit of pressure and it was the opening match…. We will have to let go. “It’s a good performance because we won, but I think the content is not yet satisfactory,” worries Sansus at the microphone of TF1.
26 wins in a row for England
The XV of France also suffered in sequence from the physical power of South Africa. “On the contacts, they dominated us a lot,” admits Ferer. “We played against a big team from South Africa which was very dense. I’m thinking of girls like Romane (Editor’s note: Ménager) and Madoussou (Editor’s note: Fall) who managed to compete, describes Sansus. Fortunately we had them because, physically, they were very tough, they attacked us, they hurt us. »
And that’s just a taste of what England, the big favorites of the competition, can offer. The British marched on Fiji on Saturday (84-19), passing 14 tries to the Pacific players and winning a 26th victory in a row, an all-gender record. Undefeated since July 2019, the “Red Roses” are waiting for Les Bleues whom they beat in Bayonne (24-12) in April on Saturday October 15 (9 a.m.) for the shock of this group.
“We simply have to manage to do 80 minutes at a high level. We have the right to have phases of hesitation, we have to manage to refocus and that’s what we managed to do since behind we were able to recover from the advance, wants to be positive Céline Ferer. So here it is: keep this cool head, and simply be lucid in our game. “We hope to be better in the next game,” says center three-quarter Gabrielle Vernier. Where such approximations will not be permitted.
