South Africa v France: There's more than one point to prove

NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

FRIDAY, 13 NOVEMBER – FRANCE v SOUTH AFRICA @ STADE DE FRANCE, SAINT-DENIS – KO 10.10pm (SAST)

REFEREE NOTES

Andrea Piardi (Italy)

Test debut: 17 March, 2018 – Switzerland 30-24 Poland

Tests as referee: 23

• Andrea Piardi will referee France for the first time with this fixture.

• South Africa have a W1, L1 record with Piardi in the middle, the defeat coming in September when the Springboks lost 42-38 to Australia in Perth.

• Their victory came against Argentina, 29-27 in the 2025 Rugby Championship at Allianz Stadium in London.

• This will be Piardi’s fourth Test of 2026, his year beginning with Ireland’s 42-21 victory over England in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations – although he wouldn’t finish the game due to injury.

• Piardi also oversaw Ireland’s 36-20 defeat of Japan in the Nations Championship in Australia in July.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

1913-2025 | Played 47 | France 12 | South Africa 29 | Draw 6

Points for: France 737/South Africa 1 026 (Avg. score: FRA 16, RSA 22)

Highest score: France 36 (36-26 on 24 June, 2006)/South Africa 52 (52-10 on 22 November, 1997)

Biggest winning margin: 20 (30-10 on 9 November, 2002)/South Africa 42 (52-10 on 22 November, 1997)

First met: 11 January, 1913 – South Africa 38-5 France – Bordeaux

• South Africa have won nine of the last 10 meetings with France’s only victory in that time being the 30-26 win in Marseille in 2022.

• Thomas Ramos kicked 20 points in that victory with Cyril Baille and Sipili Falatea scoring Les Bleus’ tries.

• It is 21 years since France beat South Africa at Stade de France (26-20 in 2005) when Aurelién Rougerie, Dimitri Szarzewski and Freddie Michalak were their try scorers.

• Les Bleus’ only other victory at the venue was in the inaugural fixture between the teams there in 2001, which the home side won 20-10 despite fielding seven debutants.

• The Springboks have a 71.4% win record at the Stade de France (W5, L2).

• South Africa recovered from a 14-13 half-time deficit and the loss of Lood de Jager to a red card to win their most recent meeting, 32-17 last November.

• Damian Penaud became France's all-time leading try-scorer with the first of his two scores in the first half taking him past Serge Blanco.

• Siya Kolisi won his 100th cap for the Springboks but was replaced when De Jager was dismissed to allow Andre Esterhuizen to come on and cover both the back row and centre.

• Esterhuizen scored South Africa’s second try, after Cobus Reinach had gone over before the break.

• Grant Williams and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who finished with 17 points, crossed for the visitors’ other tries.

• This victory margin was in complete contrast to their three previous encounters at the stadium, two of which had been decided by a single point – including the RWC 2023 quarter-final. The other – in 2018 – had only three points between the teams.

FRANCE TEAM NOTES

• After four rounds, France are top of the northern hemisphere standings on 17 points.

• France have picked up five bonus points along the way and sit two points above England.

• Les Bleus only conceded six penalties in last weekend’s 54-17 win against Fiji and are averaging just 8.5 per match (34 from four).

• France were awarded only the second penalty try of the tournament in Lyon (after Argentina, v England).

• Scrumhalf Maxime Lucu is the top points scorer in the Nations Championship (47), having scored one try and kicked four penalties and 15 conversions, with an 86.4% success rate in front of goal.

• France have made the most clean breaks (65) and most metres (2 282) in the Nations Championship.

• France claimed their eighth Guinness Men’s Six Nations title in March, the most by any team since the tournament was expanded to include Italy in 2000, after a breathless 48-46 win over England.

• It was the first time that Les Bleus had claimed back-to-back titles since the twin triumph in 2006 and 2007.

• It is now five times out of seven that Les Bleus have won the Men’s Six Nations the year after a British & Irish Lions tour (2002, 2006, 2010, 2022 and 2026).

• The 50-40 defeat to Scotland in round four cost France the chance to become the first team to win five Grand Slams in the Men’s Six Nations era (they are currently tied on four with Wales).

• It was the most points that France have ever conceded to Scotland.

• France scored 30 tries in the championship, equalling the record they had set en route to the title the previous year.

• France scored 33 points or more in every game; the previous best benchmark was 25, set by England in 2003 and by France in 2025.

SQUAD NOTES

• France were already without Thomas Ramos, Matthieu Jalibert and Antoine Hastoy before their flyhalf injury crisis worsened when Romain Ntamack dislocated his shoulder against Fiji.

• As a result they have opted to play captain Antoine Dupont at number 10 this weekend alongside his fellow scrum-half Maxime Lucu. It will be Dupont’s first Test start at flyhalf, he has started eight times there for Toulouse but not since March 2024.

• France have similar injury concerns among the forwards with La Rochelle flanker Paul Boudehent the latest to be forced out with a calf injury.

• Boudehent, who scored a try against Fiji, joins a casualty list in the pack that already includes Emmanuel Meafou, Thibaud Flament, Demba Bamba and Marko Gazzotti, Oscar Jegou and Anthony Jelonch in the back row alone.

• Fabien Galthié has recalled No 8 Grégory Alldritt for his first appearance of the year, while hooker Julien Marchand also comes into the starting line-up.

• Forward Esteban Capilla made his France debut off the bench in Lyon and could be joined this weekend by Axel Desperes who is one of two players covering the backline this weekend alongside Emilien Gailleton.

COACH NOTES

• Fabien Galthié’s overall record is now P75, W56, D1, L18 (74.7% win percentage)

• Galthié’s first Test as Les Bleus head coach was in February 2020, marking his debut with a 24-17 win at home to England. 

• He celebrated his 50th Test in charge of France with a 39th Test victory in the opening match of their July 2024 tour against Argentina.  

• His 50th win as Les Bleus head coach was against Ireland in round one of the 2026 Men’s Six Nations.

• Galthié has led the team to three Men’s Six Nati6ns titles, in 2022, 2025 and 2026. The 2022 triumph was their first title in 12 years.

• He is also the only person to lead France to number one in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings, achieving the feat for a solitary week in July 2022.  

• The former scrumhalf won 38 of his 68 Tests as a player for France from 1991-2003. 

• He was named World Rugby’s Men’s Player of the Year in 2002, the same year he captained France to a Men’s Six Nations Grand Slam. 

SA TEAM NOTES

• Having gone into the northern hemisphere phase of the Nations Championship on the back of a defeat to Australia, South Africa responded with a 66-7 win over Italy to maintain their 100% record in the competition.

• South Africa sit on top of the southern hemisphere standings, level on 20 points with New Zealand but with a superior points difference (+140/+73).

• South Africa have scored the most tries (29) and points (196) across the first four rounds.

• Their tries have been scored from a tournament-high number of visits to the opposition red zone (63), with the Springboks scoring a try in 46% of those visits, making them the second most clinical team in the competition.

• Twenty of those entries came in the match against Italy, when they averaged 3.3 points per visit.

• South Africa lead the Nations Championship for maul tries scored (5).

• South Africa have passed the ball the fewest times across the first four rounds (413) and have kicked the ball 112 times in open play – more than any other team except Japan (114).

• Last weekend’s match against Italy was the first time in five Tests that the Springboks hadn’t conceded four or more tries in a match.

• Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked an early penalty before scoring a try and kicking all nine conversions to claim 26 points in his first appearance in the competition.

• Malcolm Marx bagged a brace in Turin and now has 30 Test tries overall, as he closes in on Ardie Savea’s world record of 35 by a forward.

• South Africa led Italy 45-0 at half-time and have yet to concede a try in the first half-hour of a match in the Nations Championship.

• South Africa have only been behind at the break once in their 10 Tests this year, in the 42-38 loss to Australia in Perth, when they trailed 24-17.

• The defeat to Australia followed the Springboks’ 3-1 win in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series with New Zealand, which helped to lift their rating in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings above 95 points for the first time in history.

• South Africa outscored New Zealand across the series, 121 points to 111 but the All Blacks scored more tries (17-14).

• The Springboks held the lead for 210 minutes across the series compared to New Zealand's 77 (42 of which were in the All Blacks’ first Test victory).

• The Springboks conceded 35 penalties across four tests to the All Blacks' 43 but had four players sin-binned to New Zealand’s one.

• On average, South Africa conceded six points for every 10 minutes they had fewer than 15 players on the field.

• Nearly a third of the penalties awarded to South Africa came at the scrum (13).

• Adding to their set-piece dominance, South Africa only lost two of their 43 throws into the line-out (95.3%) compared to New Zealand’s eight.

• South Africa’s kick retention success rate was 23% compared to New Zealand’s 18%.

• The Springboks gained more metres against New Zealand in the fourth and final Test (695) than in any other game against the All Blacks in the last 10 years.

SQUAD NOTES

• South Africa have turned to their most-capped player Eben Etzebeth as a squad replacement for uncapped flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed, who has returned home with a sore shoulder.

• The second-row had initially been left out of the squad due to injury but now recovered he will arrive to add considerable experience to the ranks, although he is not involved in the match-day squad against France.

• Lood de Jager keeps his place in the second row, having been a late change ahead of the Italy match after Salmaan Moerat suffered a recurrence of back spasms in the warm-up.

• Rassie Erasmus has made only two changes to his match-day squad to face France with Wilco Louw promoted to the starting front row in place of Thomas du Toit after his impressive contribution from the bench in the 66-7 win over Italy.

• Cobus Reinach also replaces Grant Williams on the bench as back-up to starting nine Morné van den Berg.

COACH NOTES

• Rassie Erasmus returned to the Springbok head coach role in February 2024, signing a contract that takes him through to the end of 2027.

• The win over Les Bleus at the Stade de France a year ago was his 50th as head coach.

• He has overseen 37 Tests in his second spell, winning 31 and losing six (83.8%).

• Overall, he has been in charge of 63 Tests (head coach/director of rugby) and moved past Jake White as the Springboks’ most experienced coach during the Nations Championship in July.

• Erasmus was the mastermind behind the Springboks’ back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes of 2019 and 2023 – as head coach and then director of rugby.

• He also led South Africa to their first Rugby Championship title in five years in 2024 and a clean sweep of victories in the Autumn Nations Series that followed.

• His first reign in charge started with a defeat to Wales in Washington DC in June 2018.

• Erasmus won 36 caps for South Africa as a back-row forward from 1997-2001.

DID YOU KNOW…?

• Four of their last five meetings – all on French soil – have been decided by a margin of four points or fewer, including two by a solitary point with South Africa’s 29-28 victory in the Rugby World Cup 2023 quarter-final one of them.

• Siya Kolisi will captain South Africa for the 70th time this weekend, against the side he became the ninth Springbok centurion in their most recent meeting with France last November.

WORLD RUGBY MEN’S RANKINGS PERMUTATIONS

• South Africa will lose their No 1 ranking if they fail to beat France and New Zealand are victorious over Wales in Cardiff a day later. This is despite New Zealand being unable to improve their rating in victory.

• The Springboks cannot fall any lower than second this weekend as Ireland also can’t improve their rating by beating the lower-ranked Fiji.

• France will move up to third if they beat the Springboks for the first time since 2022.

• South Africa can increase their cushion over New Zealand to as much as 1.10 rating points with a win by more than 15 points.

• France will only lose fourth place if they are beaten by more than 15 points and England beat Japan.

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)