LONG READ ‘Another defeat against bogey team South Africa will really give France les bleus’

It’s two years and one month since France last played the Springboks. It is a match that still haunts many of the Bleus. In a recent interview Thomas Ramos, France’s full-back, admitted that it took a year before he was able to watch highlights of the 29-28 defeat.

In an interview in Monday’s Midi Olympique, Laurent Labit, France’s backs’ coach in that stunning World Cup quarter-final clash, said it was the “hardest defeat” of his long coaching career. ‘Trauma’ was the word used by head coach Fabien Galthié in early 2024, admitting that he “underwent a long period of strong introspection” in the weeks after the loss.

Saturday’s Test match at the Stade de France is a chance then for revenge, but it’s also an opportunity for South Africa to strike an early psychological blow two years out from the 2027 World Cup. Beat France again on their home patch and recently healed wounds will reopen. The Boks, as the saying goes, will be living rent-free in French heads.

The omens are not good for France. They have beaten South Africa once in their last nine Tests (a 30-26 victory in Marseille in November 2022), stretching back 15 years. Four of those defeats have been at the Stade de France, a stadium that the Springboks clearly like. The last time France beat South Africa in Paris was 2005.

Coach Rassie Erasmus is being courtesy personified ahead of the Test. “We know what it’s like to play France away from home,” he said this week. “The passion, intensity and atmosphere in which you play there is very different.”

Is there passion and intensity in the Stade de France? One French broadcaster described the stadium in 2023 as “a very cold venue, structurally unsuited to creating an electric atmosphere”.

France playing their Test matches in Paris is like England’s HQ being in Liverpool. It’s nonsensical.

There is without doubt atmosphere in Marseille, where France beat South Africa in 2022 and 2002, as well as Toulouse, scene of another famous Bleus win in 2009. These cities are southern ones, in the heartland of French rugby, where the climate, like the temperament, is hotter.

France is unique among the top rugby nations in siting its national stadium in a city that doesn’t much care for the sport. Sure, Paris has two professional clubs in Racing 92 and Stade Français, but both are in the bottom half of the Top 14 when it comes to average attendances (11,061 and 14,197 respectively). Bordeaux’s average gate last season was 32,000 and Toulouse’s 21,000.

France playing their Test matches in Paris is like England’s HQ being in Liverpool. It’s nonsensical.

It’s also a financial burden on fans, most of whom live in the south of France, particularly in this era of economic hardship. How many people on low-income wages can afford a train or plane ticket from Toulouse to Paris, a hotel for a night and a match ticket?

Whatever Erasmus is saying in public, in private he will be quietly confident that his boys will inflict another defeat on a France team devoid of several key players. No Antoine Dupont, Peato Mauvaka, François Cros, Théo Attissogbe, Yoram Moefana or Uini Atonio.

Arguably the player whose absence will worry Galthié most is Atonio. The veteran tighthead prop is sidelined with injury, as is his understudy Tevita Tatafu. According to the French press, Saturday’s tighthead will be rookie Régis Montagne. His two previous caps came as a replacement on this summer’s tour to New Zealand, and he is expected to be partnered at prop by another Test newbie, Baptiste Erdocio, similarly blooded in New Zealand.

Saturday will be unlike anything the pair have previously experienced. Their first Test on home soil against the back-to-back world champions, who boast the best front row in the business. Oh, and there’s also the Bomb Squad. Bonne Chance.

There had been talk of Dupont being a prime target for R360, the breakaway league, but he has put that rumour to bed.

Dupont has been with the French squad this week at their camp in Marcoussis, lending his moral support but also taking part in light no-contact training. The scrum-half is scheduled to make his comeback for Toulouse at the end of the month but the sight of Dupont running freely after his horrific knee injury will gladden Gallic hearts.

On Saturday evening at the half-time break between Toulouse and Stade Français, Dupont emerged to inform the faithful that he has signed a new contract that will keep him at the club until 2031. There had been talk of him being a prime target for R360, the breakaway league, but Dupont has put that rumour to bed. According to a recent report in Midi Olympique, R360 is having no joy trying to lure French stars to their project.

Dupont turns 29 next week so the 2027 World Cup will be the last tournament when he is in his prime. France’s preparations for the competition begin in earnest on Saturday, and a win against South Africa will set them well on their way. But another defeat against their bogey team will really give France a case of les bleus.