South Africa, the world champions, went down 20-13 to France in Toulouse last night. Having being beaten in the opening game of their tour by Leicester, they will now come to Wembley to play Saracens on Tuesday looking for a morale-boosting win after being outmuscled by a French pack inspired by the work of Louis Picamoles and Fabien Barcella.
Two Springboks, Morn? Steyn and Ryan Kankowski, were sent to the sin-bin and although the visiting team, who have not won in France since 1997, took an early ten-point lead, a try by Vincent Clerc and the kicking of Julien Dupuy, with four penalty goals, saw France home. South Africa will also face Italy and Ireland.
Marc Lievremont, the France coach, said: “Things are starting to take shape, this match would have pleased our glorious ancestors. It is a satisfaction that we were able to control the game, in terms of our kicking and handling. We could even have had two or three more tries if we’d finished off our chances.”
Peter de Villiers, the Sprinboks coach, said that the French deserved the win, but was angry because the South African anthem was performed poorly before the match, with the singer at times pausing and seeming to struggle to remember the words.
“We were annoyed that the French disrespect our anthem,” he said. “They didn’t get somebody there who really knows [it] and show any respect to it. Getting to the game, you can’t play the game without the ball. We allowed them on to the ball a lot. They won the contest on the floor and in the contact situations we lost too many balls. They were the better side.”
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The intrigue was maintained when Del Potro completed four games against Radek Stepanek before succumbing to a stomach muscle pull, which is not expected to affect his chances of making the tour finals.