Match Report – France 21 – 19 South Africa

Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, Théo Attissogbe, Louis Bielle-Biarrey score first-half tries for sensational France, who then withstand enormous second-half pressure from South Africa to secure Nations Championship victory and ensure top spot in the northern hemisphere table

Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang was among the try-scorers as France pulled off an epic victory over South Africa

France put a raft of injuries behind them to withstand huge pressure and defeat South Africa 21-19 in a stunning Nations Championship victory in Paris.

The win is only the second for Les Bleus over the Springboks in the last 11 contests, with the hosts playing sensationally in the first half and digging in to survive and get over the line in the second.

Back-three Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, Théo Attissogbe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey each scored tries in the opening half, with France belying the fact they had to play Antoine Dupont at 10 due to four fly-halves being out injured (Matthieu Jalibert, Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos, Antoine Hastoy).

All three tries were converted by Maxime Lucu, with France 21-7 ahead at the half-time break, but the second half proved entirely different.

Though South Africa were shown a 20-minute red card to back-row Cobus Wiese for an illegal ruck clear-out, France coughed up sin-bins to Lucu, Grandidier-Nkanang and Régis Montagne – the latter as a result of scrum penalties which kept flowing the visitors’ way.

Scrum-half Cobus Reinach and hooker Malcom Marx scored tries in the second half for South Africa – adding to a first-half Jan-Hendrik Wessels effort – but Manie Libbok crucially missed the third conversion and the chance to draw level.

Dupont: We kept intensity up the whole match – ‘That’s huge for us’

France scrum-half Antoine Dupont told ITV:

“I feel tired! They (South Africa) are really intense during the 80 minutes.

“It was so hard today with the yellow cards. We kept the intensity the whole game, and that’s a huge thing for us today.

“We tried to adapt (Dupont at fly-half), we just had one day of training this week.

“I tried with Max (Lucu) to have the best combination possible. In attack and defence.

“With the energy of the entire team, it worked.”

What’s next?

For France, they next face Argentina in their third Nations Championship Test of the autumn at the Stade de France in Paris on Saturday, November 21 (8.10pm kick-off).

South Africa travel to face Ireland at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin for their next Test, also on Saturday November 21 (4.40pm kick-off).