France lived up to their reputation in Paris - brilliant, unpredictable and infuriating. To throw in seven new caps against the Springboks would have fazed any other country but on a freezing night at the Stade it was South Africa, in the first game of their short European tour, who looked exposed.
The Springboks travel to Genoa this week for what should be a warming win against Italy but for coach Harry Viljoen, a Test against England the following weekend is a chilling prospect. "I watched England on television this afternoon. They played some superb rugby, particularly in the first half. We've a lot of hard work to do. Still, this could pull us together ..."
And there Viljoen's voice trailed away. South Africa failed to beat France in their home series and followed it with a moribund Tri-Nations when they only won one game.
When Gerald Merceron, France's playmaker and goal-kicker, pulled out of on the eve of the Test, Les Bleus looked like they were in for a very long night indeed. His replacement, the floppy-haired Francois Gelez of Agen, looks like he only shaves once a week but the fresh-faced number 10 kicked four penalties and played as if to the manner born. The Toulouse 19-year-old Clement Poitrenaud and his teenage club-mate Frederic Michalak, the new golden boys of French rugby, also came of age.
"We might have underestimated them earlier this year but not this time. We expected a rousing performance. French teams do not lie down," said South Africa's captain Bobby Skinstad. What Skinstad could not have expected was how the Springbok lineout and scrum failed and why in the first half particularly, they continually knocked the ball on. The cold snap accounted partly for those dropped passes but France, running adventurously from the early minutes, seemed untroubled by the drop in temperature.
Viljoen's naming of an entire replacement front row, all of whom came on in the second half, hinted he was worried about the ability of Ollie Le Roux and Cobus Visagie to cope with the French props Pieter de Villiers and Jean-Jacques Crenca. His fears were realised in the early minutes when Visagie collapsed a scrum and bored into the French front row, conceding penalties.
The Springboks did engineer a second-half try when Andre Snyman gave a scoring pass to Pieter Rossouw but another debutant, centre Damien Traille, kicked a penalty from three metres inside the French half to restore their lead.
When former-skipper hooker Raphael Ibanez, caught a long pass from the current captain Fabien Galthie to touch down six minutes from time, the Springboks were reeled in.
FRANCE: Poitrenaud (Toulouse); Rougerie (Montferrand), Traille (Pau), Marsh, Bory (both Montferrand); Gelez (Agen; Michalak, Toulouse, 79min), Galthie (capt; Stade Francais); Crenca (Agen), Ibanez (Castres), De Villiers (Stade Francais), Auradou (Sta de Francais), Privat (Beziers; Nallet, Bourgoin, 68), Tabacco (Stade Francais), F Ntamack (Colomiers, Betsen, Biarritz, 80), Magne (Montferrand).
SOUTH AFRICA: Jantjes (Lions); Paulse (Western Province), Snyman (Natal; Montgomery, 72), Halstead (Natal Sharks), Rossouw (Western Province); Van Straaten (Western Province), Van de Westhiuzen (Blue Bulls); Le Roux (Natal Sharks; Van der Linde; Western Province, 60), Van Biljon (Natal Sharks; Smit, Natal Sharks, 68), Visagie (Western Province; Meyer, Lions, 65), Matfield (Bulls), Andrews (Natal Sharks; A Venter; Free State, 79), Vos (Lions), AJ Venter (Natal Sharks; Van Niekerk, Lions, 75), Skinstad (capt, Western Province).
Referee: A Lewis (Ireland).
