Nations Championship
France (21) 21
Try: Grandidier-Nkanang, Attissogbé, Bielle-Biarrey Disadvantages: Lucu (3)
South Africa (7) 19
Try: Wessels, Reinach, Marx Disadvantages: Feinberg-Mngomezulu (2)
France held on to end their five-game losing streak against South Africa at the Stade de France with a thrilling 21-19 victory in Paris.
This victory undermines the world champions’ hopes of reaching the final of the Nations Championship and places the Blues in a strong position to take the lead in the northern hemisphere rankings.
The hosts, inspired by their captain Antoine Dupont, showed their class and talent by scoring three tries in a frantic first half.
French defenders Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, Theo Attissogbe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey all crossed in a thrilling first 40 minutes, with Jan-Hendrik Wessels scoring after a maul for the visitors.
The Springboks thought they had a second try just before half-time, but Kurt-Lee Arendse’s try was ruled out after he was slightly offside.
Number eight Jasper Wiese received a red card 20 minutes into the second half – the third of five cards handed out in an incident-rich match – for a dangerous shoulder charge, but it had the opposite effect of derailing the world champions.
As South Africa’s power proved too much from set pieces, replacement scrum-half Cobus Reinach and hooker Malcolm Marx scored to set up a thrilling finale.
However, Manie Libbok missed the vital conversion to Marx’s try which would have leveled the game.
With South Africa looking to secure a winning score, Bielle-Biarrey made a huge defensive tackle to force the ball loose, before Dupont, named player of the match, won possession back to help seal the victory.
The result will be a blow to England and Ireland, who are in direct competition with France for a place in the Nations Championship final at the end of the month.
Les Bleus, who are six points clear at the top of the Northern Hemisphere table, will now face Argentina next Saturday, putting them in a strong position to reach the inaugural final at the Allianz Stadium on Sunday 29 November.
Gn sports
