Nche: “France will pose an equally big threat as before”

Springbok prop Ox Nche was under no illusions about the threat France would pose when the teams cross paths in Paris in their Nations Championship encounter on Friday and highlighted the scrums as one of the key areas of the game.

Nche, who will pack down in the Bok front row with Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw at the Stade de France, spoke highly of the French forward pack.

“They love the scrum,” he said.

“They have a lot of big and heavy boys, who want to scrum and that French team is a good example of rugby being a game for all shapes and sizes.

“They are really good at scrummaging and you can see they’ve been very consistent throughout the Six Nations and even with their teams in the European competitions, so they definitely bring a challenge similar to playing a local derby. It’s very personal for the guy you’re coming up against, and that’s probably the difference.”

Reflecting on their opening match of the November tour against Italy next week, Nche agreed with his teammates earlier in the week that they were determined to step up their performance despite winning the match 66-7.

“The Italians put a lot of pressure on us,” said Nche.

“We’ve reviewed the game and there’s quite a bit of work we have to do because we fell a bit out of system and we just weren’t on the same page as a pack. They were definitely more determined than we were and I think we were just a bit loose.

“But we have solutions for that and we’ll certainly look to fix it and put in a performance that matches our standards when this weekend.”

The powerful scrummager expected France to come out fighting with everything they have after two massive battles against them in the last two matches, despite the home side nursing a few injuries, especially at flyhalf.

“They’re a very dangerous team, and they definitely have options in the squad and they’ve created quite a good culture of giving the younger guys game time against top nations on their tours over the last two years or so,” he said.

“So, we don’t see them differently than we did last season. They have very good players, who all understand the system and they’ll be looking to implement it in their own way, so we’re just as focused as we were for the game last year.”

France starting XV: 15 Théo Attissogbe, 14 Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, 13 Kalvin Gourgues, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey; 10 Antoine Dupont (capt), 9 Maxime Lucu; 8 Gregory Alldritt, 7 Cameron Woki, 6 François Cros; 5 Mickaël Guillard, 4 Florian Verhaeghe; 3 Sipili Falatea, 2 Julien Marchand, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros. Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 Régis Montagne, 19 Charles Ollivon, 20 Tom Staniforth, 21 Esteban Capilla, 22 Axel Desperes, 23 Emilien Gailleton.

Springbok starting XV: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker; 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Morne van den Berg; 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (capt); 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Lood de Jager; 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche. Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Manie Libbok.

France v South Africa @ Stade de France, Saint-Denis - Friday (10.10pm)

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

Assistant Referee 1: Christophe Ridley (RFU)

Assistant Referee 2: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)

TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)

FPRO: Andrew Jackson (RFU)