France have spent years trying to beat the Boks but belief and bodies are fading

Injury crisis makes the job harder for Fabien Galthié whose side have beaten South Africa once in their last 10 meetings The final of this inaugural Nations Championship is two weeks away, but regardless of who makes it through to the last match at Twickenham there’s an irresisti

Injury crisis makes the job harder for Fabien Galthié whose side have beaten South Africa once in their last 10 meetings The final of this inaugural Nations Championship is two weeks away, but regardless of who makes it through to the last match at Twickenham there’s an irresistible sense that the two best teams from either side of the competition will go head-to-head at the Stade de France this Friday night. France, back-to-back Six Nations champions, play South Africa, back-to-back world champions, and the one team that the French – and anyone else with dreams of becoming the world’s best team – need to find a way to beat in the 12 months before the Springboks take a run at winning a third consecutive World Cup. France have been looking for one of those for a long time now.

This is not an even-sided rivalry. South Africa have won nine of the 10 games the two teams have played in the past 15 years, including the last five in Paris. England, Ireland, even Wales all have better head-to-head records against the Springboks in that same stretch of time.

France’s one win was in Marseille in 2022, and whatever good it did them was undone a year later when the Springboks knocked them out of their home World Cup in the quarter-finals. Continue reading...