“What about the script? Red, red, yellow…” Difficult for coach Fabien Galthié to simply sum up the crazy, tough, close match from start to finish that his players delivered against the world champions. So at the time of starting the analysis, he retains “the first victory”, the twelfth in row, against an opponent they had not beaten for thirteen years.
“All the players went for this victory. They refused defeat. We felt it at some point. She was prowling around there, she was in the stadium. We saw her, but the players refused her, ”satisfies the coach. Not everything was easy, far from it. After an ideal first twenty minutes, France led 13-0, the South Africans were reduced to fourteen after Du Toit was sent off for a big header on Danty.
“It was still the world champions in front”
At halftime, the Blues were only leading by six points and had lost four players, including three on concussion protocol. “You have to pay tribute to all the players, those who started and also the finishers. The finishers who were “starters” almost since they attacked the match in the first half, ”underlines Galthié. Worse, France found themselves in turn at fourteen after the expulsion of Antoine Dupont (48th). And found herself led a few minutes later.
This is where the defeat lurked, and where the Blues turned everything around. “We knew we were going to enter a zone of intensity, hardness, violence”, had planned the coach before the match. But there, “when you see the last quarter of an hour, how they turned this game around, how they put the South Africans to death, collision after collision, decision after decision”… In the end, there are the reasons for satisfaction, and something to work with. “I hope that Antoine and his men keep this in mind to continue to progress. The speed, the hardness, the intensity. Their lucidity too, they read situations very quickly. It was still the world champions opposite, ”smiles Fabien Galthié.