According to the weather forecast, the sky is forecast to put an end to the mild temperatures of early autumn, but on Sunday October 15, the Stade de France in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) should be boiling like it rarely does.
“We don’t fear a cold snap,” joked the French XV attack coach, Laurent Labit, during the week. At 9 p.m., the Blues face the South African title holders in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup. And, they expect “a meeting of quite rare intensity”, warns William Servat, coach in charge of the conquest.
If the Springboks are the only team not to have received any card – the Blues received one against Uruguay – during the group stage of the competition, they have the reputation of offering a very physical game, not to mention brutal. In November 2022, the Tricolores experienced it at the Stade-Vélodrome, in Marseille: winners (30-26) of a “violent” game, according to Charles Ollivon. “There were quite a few knockouts, clashes in the ruck zones,” explains the third line. We expect a match of the same style. They are well prepared to physically mark the opponent. They will stay true to themselves. »
Having not played for two weeks, and their victory against Tonga, the Boks arrive in Saint-Denis with the intention of continuing their road to a double and erasing the recent memory of their narrow defeat against Ireland (8-13). And if the coach, Jacques Nienaber, chose to modify the composition of his bench to put “only” five forwards – he sometimes went up to seven –, make no mistake: “ They have a tradition of being very rough, and whether there is one more or less forward on the bench, it doesn’t change much to their mentality,” insists Charles Ollivon.
“The XV of France, too, has players who hit hard”
“It’s almost in their genes,” observes former French international Denis Charvet. Since their earliest childhood, combat and aggression have been part of their culture, their way of life. And in a way, they are a bit formatted. » If he has experienced many tough opponents in the national jersey, the consultant for RMC Sport isolates among the Springboks “a depth of wickedness that [he has] experienced nowhere else”. For him, South Africa “does harm on man”, without tipping over into violence, but always flirting with the limit.
Assuming their “physicality”, the reigning world champions do not intend to change their approach against the Blues. “Rugby is sometimes brutal,” admitted their captain Siya Kolisi on Friday. We don’t hide what we are, we’re not going to do anything different. This is how we play. » It was by reconnecting with this DNA that the child from the townships, who became the first black captain of the Springboks, and his partners won the coronation in 2019.
“The South Africans do not try to move the ball like the Toulouse people: their culture is not passing or playing with movement at all costs, it is a fierce desire to advance (…) that there is a wall or a man in front,” analyzes Sébastien Piqueronies, manager of the Pau Section and former coach of the France U20 team.
Father of the Springbok revival, Rassie Erasmus told his players in 2018: “Be so aggressive. We don’t want to annoy them, we want to scare them. Those are two different things. Pointing fingers at them, shaking them and threatening them, it annoys them. Tackle a guy, stare at him and make fun of him, it scares him,” insisted the technician – now director of South African rugby – in images captured by the documentary Chasing the sun (on Canal).
“I hope that there will be good medical staff [Sunday at the Stade de France], because [in 2022] the players were lining up for the concussion protocol,” recalled Frenchman William Servat. In total, five rugby players had to follow this procedure following a head impact. As since the start of the competition, World Rugby, the international federation, is providing two rooms for this purpose within the venue.
On Sunday, a quarter-final at the top awaits the Blues. The fact remains that they have the material to compete. “The French XV, too, has players who hit hard,” insists third row Grégory Alldritt. We sometimes forget it, because we are lucky to have extraterrestrials like Damian [Penaud] or Antoine [Dupont], but we have the weapons to respond. We will have to do even better and even more than usual. » A place in the last four of the world is at this price.