They congratulate each other, slap each other loudly on the chest, and even take their captain Siya Kolisi, whose hundredth selection is celebrated with a great victory (17-32), for a lap of honor. South Africa made the Stade de France their own, two years after frustrating the Blues by a point in the quarter-final of the World Cup (28-29), again by taking the upper hand in the second half.
But if he had mismanaged the second act two years ago, the French XV this time completely got through their return from the locker room. Shall we summarize the project for you? The Blues took a breather at the break with a one point lead (14-13) and the Springboks just reduced to 14 after the expulsion of Lood de Jaeger (40th). They only scored three points in the second half, conceding 19, including three tries in the last quarter of an hour (65th, 71st, 77th).
Unlosable? We won’t go that far, but certainly not in these proportions. “I am pleasantly surprised by the 15 point difference,” breathes the coach of the double world champions, Rassie Erasmus. Shaken at the start of the second half, his men gradually took control of the match to finish in a suffocating last 15 minutes.
On the French side, we play the “we missed our moment” card. “We had a good twenty minutes where we undermined them with our launches, but we were unable to make it happen because of narrow errors,” said captain Gaël Fickou. We could have put them at distance and moved to eight points (in advance). It’s a team that has a lot of experience, so if you don’t kill them, it gets complicated. » Essentially the same idea as that developed by his coach alongside him.
“Not at the same level as them”
“At 15 against 14, we had a bit of waste” complains scrum half Nolann Le Garrec. “South Africa played an 80-minute match, we stopped playing a little,” summarizes hooker Julien Marchand. We had some strong moments, we didn’t manage to score at the end of the first and at the start of the second half. In the commitment, we were there. Little by little, we gave in in the head. »
Let’s take a broader look, France also suffered from certain individual failures. Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s yellow card for a voluntary forward (64th) launched the final South African demonstration. As for the contribution of the French sideline, we are still looking for it, except perhaps that of third row Oscar Jegou. Fabien Galthié and his staff brought in five substitute forwards from the 47th minute, before making a double change (Lucu and Depoortère in place of Le Garrec and Fickou) at the hour mark.
“It’s a collective disappointment, which is especially not aimed at the players who entered the field, they individually gave what they could,” Fabien Galthié tried in defense. But it is clear that his bench did not absolutely prevent 14 Springboks from marching on all these beautiful people on arrival.
“When we were cornered in our last meters it was unforgiving. It comes five meters from the line, it scores a try and it leaves,” says Thomas Ramos at the microphone of TF1. “We lacked enthusiasm in the second half, we let go a little. That’s also what’s tough against the best team in the world. At key moments, we watched them a little too much, describes Thibaud Flament. We take 30 points, so we are not at the same level as them. We lost, but we learned things. »
Above all, we saw that the gap between the winner of the last Six Nations Tournament and the double world champions has widened in two years. And even a red card didn’t change anything.
