At the Stade de France,
Lying is a gift specific to humans, a natural faculty that no one in this world is unaware of. But there is lying, and doing it directly in the eyes of your interlocutor without flinching. After the failure of the Springboks against Ireland, almost synonymous with the quarter-final against the XV of France, the coach of South Africa, Jacques Nienaber swore not to think of the Blues, nor of Antoine Dupont, nothing, niet, walou. “I have not yet analyzed the French XV. First of all, we need to focus on Tonga before thinking about France. » Yes, of course, the famous Tonga Islands, 15th nation in the world, the ogre of the Pacific, the same one that took 59 pawns in the face against the Irish on September 16. Without a doubt. Not to us, Jacques, not to us. In the same vein, we will salute the translation breakdown mentioned by his counterpart Andy Farrell when answering a question about his relief at avoiding the Blues. “We only think about Scotland.” Clearly, the Blues interest no one. It’s borderline annoying.
Well, we’re a bit of a bad tongue, especially with the Springbok coach. Let’s give him credit for giving his opinion on Antoine Dupont’s injury. “It’s the same for us. We lose an important player [Malcom Marx]. I think it won’t be the only injury. Injuries are part of rugby. I think he will definitely come back during the competition. I would be happy to. A World Cup is made for great players to play. » One lie, another. If great players can only play against others, it’s always better.
Violence and inaccuracy
Joking aside, we ourselves are not sure we want to see Antoine Dupont take Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph Du Toit in the face – the equivalent of being run over by a semi-trailer – with pieces of metal in place of the cheeks. It is already difficult to understand how Johnny Sexton, targeted for 80 minutes like Sandrine Rousseau on Twitter, was able to survive this surge of violence. In the post-match press conference, the Irish fly-half did not hold back from mentioning “the borderline tackles” throughout this “really very physical” match.
In short, it is therefore a fight in the literal sense of the term which awaits Fabien Galthié’s men in the quarter-finals of his World Cup. A defect, but not inevitable. Especially since, thanks to these good old Irishmen, the French staff have a model on which to take an example to defeat the world champions. Saturday’s match was a bit like “how to steal 12 balls from the Sud-Afs in the rucks, and make them go crazy in our 22 meters, for dummies”. The second point is important. Playing against South Africa means resigning yourself to spending a lot of time defending your line or at best your 22. Against Ireland, the Springboks’ territorial approach was in itself relevant, it did not missed only the efficiency to achieve the domination of the first 20 minutes of the second half. The latter, like the Ox Nché pillar, are well aware of this. “We need to work harder on our execution and realism in the 22m. We must manage to keep the ball longer to put the opponent under pressure. »
The Springboks fear the pressure
And what about the catastrophic foot play of the De Klerk-Libbok hinge, not willing to stick one between the poles and by extension responsible for the bankruptcy of their team? “During the warm-up the penalties went without a problem, so I don’t know what happened,” admitted Nienaber. This team, as powerful and experienced as it is, would it be permeable to pressure? “When there is less pressure, it is easier to manage. But players get used to the pressure as the competition progresses. […] We’re going to have to talk about how we handle pressure. » Not too much though, eh? You shouldn’t make too much progress in three weeks.
Once we have identified the few South African weaknesses, what can we expect from our Blues? Grégory Alldritt in the role of the guy who lifts Etzebeth like James Lowe (without doubt the greatest rugby moment of the World Cup so far), Thomas Ramos in that of the striker of the Springboks’ dreams, Jalibert at the peak of his creativity to thwart the destructive forwards, Fickou Aki style to break through the South African defense? To let yourself be ignited by a stadium won over to your cause, as was the case for the Irish in Saint-Denis, or should we say Saint-Patrick? Probably a little bit of all that at once.