“It’s really going to scrap”, warned Thibaud Flament a few days before the victory of the Blues against South Africa (30-26), Saturday, November 12, in Marseille. His prediction may have made sense, but the second row in the gray helmet was not mistaken. The Toulousain had a ringside seat to gauge duels of extreme intensity, until he paid the price himself by leaving on concussion in the 32nd minute. “Chaos”confessed Charles Ollivon afterwards at the microphone of France Télévisions to describe this fight. “A bit of war on the ground”for Cameron Woki.
Before leaving, Flament had time to strike six tackles – the best French total of the evening compared to the number of minutes spent on the ground. His activity symbolized a rough match, the outcome of which was essentially decided in front. In this game, the Blues hit hard from the start. Three stolen touches and the 117 kilos of the colossus Etzebeth repressed by Marchand and Baille, the tone was set. The expulsion of the springbok flanker Du Toit, for a dangerous clearing on Danty (11th), reflected a certain loss of South African nerves.
It was above all the reflection of a game with rough if not violent shocks, which left several players on the floor from the start. Besides Danty and Flament, Uini Atonio (29th) and Cyril Baille (33rd) paid the price for a first act during which it was better not to slip away. The La Rochelle center suffers from a fracture of the orbital floor, when the Toulouse pillar, hit in the groin, could head towards “an operation” very quickly, according to Fabien Galthié.
“We didn’t think we would have so many injuries”, recognized Anthony Jelonch at the end of the match. Sekou Macalou, Romain Taofifenua, Sipili Falatea and another Reda Wardi, all entered prematurely, answered present. Joining this fight along the way without leaving feathers was not easy. “It was not a violent match, but a physical match”however put the South African captain Siya Kolisi into perspective after the meeting.
“World Rugby is doing a good job of protecting the players, we can play as hard as we can, within the rules.
South Africa captain Siya Kolisiat a press conference
It is still rare to attend four replacements on concussion protocol in half an hour. The second row Woki, for his part, saw “excessive commitment on both sides”. At the turn of this statement, Kolisi welcomed the “solid package” the French. The author of the first springbok test was not mistaken. Yet masters of long streaks, the South Africans lost 12 balls, some of which are to be credited to the accuracy of the French tacklers. “It was disjointed, there were a lot of turnovers, but we held the showdown”rejoiced Ollivon.
Since the crossings were counted on the fingers of one hand, salvation necessarily came from the front. Before joining the long troop of invalids, the left-hander Baille crossed the line for the first time (21st), before being imitated by his right counterpart Falatea (74th). Weaned from the ball but very united, the three-quarters – Gaël Fickou and Yoram Moefana as a bonus – played the game. The Bordeaux-Béglais center thus scraped the winning ball from the siren.
In a match with no real red thread, with harshness as the only constant, the French did not outrageously dominate. They even went close to the correctional at the start of the second act, conceding a 0-10 after the expulsion of Antoine Dupont (48th).
Sublimated by a mad desire which put the Springboks on the ground at the end of the match, these Blues who wanted to win even “anyhow” – according to Galthié – competed all along the line. The percentages of successful tackles (87%) or rucks (93%) and mauls (100%) won, strangely similar between French and South Africans, go in this direction. “We had never played against such strong forwards”, recognized Anthony Jelonch at the end of the match. The tireless third row (10 tackles, highest total of the game), named man of the match, can boast, like his teammates, of having taken up the challenge brilliantly.