Well done Bokke!
What a fantastic game.
Dunno about you guys but I reckon it's time to prepare Sacha for the captaincy when Siya retires. He is quite simply the best rugby player I've ever seen. Make him skipper and be done with it.
Bokke!!!
Galthié still getting dragged around by the Boks like Dalton did back in the day, haha.
What a team - Flatman in the studio here says Rassie is the best rugby coach ever
His innovation is next level - pulling Boan Venter at 30, sending on Esterhuizen to scrum and slot in at 12
As for Sacha he will definitely be the Bok captain sooner than later
. . . And big congrats to Siya on his 100th cap.
To think some clowns don’t rate him as a player or leader
The man is an absolute legend
Unfortunately he was more effective from the sidelines. The Substitutes won the game for us.
Fuck off
Well, I’m just disappointed there were no scraps.
Same to you, Porker. No matter how many times you shit your pants, he was far more successful shouting from the sidelines.
When he was on the field, he was practically invisible… Leadership from Pieter, Marx, and RG is what really pulled us through. Facts.
Cobus Reinach scored South Africa’s opening try in the win against France. Photograph: Benoît Tessier/Reuters
Reuters
Sat 8 Nov 2025 22.44 GMT
South Africa showed all their world champions’ resilience, storming back from 14-6 down and the first-half sending-off of the lock Lood de Jager to crush France 32-17 in a bruising Autumn international on Saturday.
Down a man for the entire second half, the Springboks absorbed early pressure before overwhelming Les Bleus through sheer physicality and composure, silencing a raucous Stade de France crowd expecting revenge for France’s World Cup heartbreak.
Henry Arundell scorches away to help England finish off battling Fiji
Two years after their agonising 29-28 World Cup quarter-final loss to the Springboks on home soil, Les Bleus looked eager to make amends even without their injured captain Antoine Dupont. But France, now on a four-match losing streak, cracked under pressure as their discipline disintegrated despite the Springboks being reduced to 14 men on the stroke of half-time.
Fabien Galthié’s side looked irresistible early on as the winger Damian Penaud scored twice to become his country’s all-time leading try-scorer with 40, surpassing Serge Blanco’s longstanding record.
A succession of reckless infringements and a costly yellow card, however, handed the initiative to the Springboks who punished every mistake in ruthless fashion.
South Africa fought back with tries from Cobus Reinach, André Esterhuizen, Grant Williams and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who also slotted two penalties and three conversions.
It had all started brightly for France. The full-back Thomas Ramos sent a perfectly weighted chip over the defence after four minutes which Penaud gathered to score. The winger struck again soon after, diving into the corner to double the lead, and when De Jager was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Ramos, France seemed in full control despite being only one point ahead.
South Africa celebrate at the final whistle after three second-half tries secured victory in Paris. Photograph: Nathan Barange/DPPI/Shutterstock
Then came South Africa’s spectacular revival through a mixture of clinical attacking and iron discipline. The France winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on, and the world champions pounced.
Esterhuizen powered over from a maul after the visitors had chosen to go for the lineout after being awarded a penalty, before Williams darted through a splintered defence for another try as the momentum swung quickly.
With France rattled and conceding a succession of penalties, Feinberg-Mngomezulu sealed a remarkable comeback, rounding the defence on the outside and sliding over the line before converting his own try.
“The credit goes to the whole team,” South Africa’s coach, Rassie Erasmus, said. “Some say they’re getting old. They’re getting wiser, calmer.”
Galthié rued his team’s missed opportunities. “Around the 60th minute we had three clear chances where we should have scored, then we conceded a series of penalties, and we were forced to defend our line until the yellow card and the try,” he said.
South Africa have now beaten France in nine of their past 10 meetings. France next face Fiji in Bordeaux on Saturday while South Africa travel to Italy.
All our tries scored by backline ... a rarity for our fellas .
7–9 minutes
When the great French wing Damian Penaud went scorching over for his second try in this staggering match, he not only overtook the great Serge Blanco as France’s all-time try-scorer, but he confirmed a French performance in the first half which was way better than anything we have seen this season, let alone this autumn.
France were ahead at half-time, but they blew three chances to extend away against a South African team hampered by the sending off of Lood de Jager, and there appeared to be every chance that France would avenge the defeat in the World Cup against South Africa which devastated a nation and took a great deal of the steam out of the whole tournament.
As Penaud was running back, and given that South Africa were later reduced in personnel, it was a game there for the taking.
Both teams put the rest of the autumn international programme into the shade — on this evidence no one else could touch them. The atmosphere was quite sensational, it was hostile and raucous and, frankly, incredible. You never really know whether the French public are going to come out and go nuts, but they gave the stadium the atmosphere of a bear pit and it was all the better for that.
It also proved what I have always felt: that France were the best team in the most recent World Cup, but a succession of bizarre defensive errors cost them the match against South Africa in this stadium.
It was all marked by the red card for De Jager, the giant South Africa lock, who bent down a very long way to smash Thomas Ramos. It took the three officials a nonsensically long time to send De Jager off, and it really is intolerable that Siya Kolisi was hanging around the officials as they debated. It was nothing to do with him and, frankly, if De Jager had not been dismissed, there could easily have been a pitch invasion judging by the noise of the crowd.
De Jager made direct contact with Ramos’s head with a tucked arm…
…and was shown a red card by referee Angus Gardiner
GETTY
South Africa were ludicrously fortunate to go in at half-time only a point behind. Penaud scored two tries, both beautifully created. The first came when Ramos took the ball wide after a series of drives and chipped beautifully for Penaud to take the ball in the air and run on to score.
Later in the half, France scored another clever try. They forced a lineout near the French line, and when everyone was expecting a catch-and-drive, Julien Marchand threw the ball in to a no-jump lineout, France took it several times around the corner, Ramos then threw out a beautiful long pass and Penaud was over again.
But one defensive lapse allowed South Africa back in during the middle of the half. Cobus Reinach, the scrum half, spotted that France had fanned out and were not defending a ruck, and he chipped ahead, chased the ball himself, and scored in isolation. It was 14-13 at half-time, but 15-14 to France in terms of personnel.
Penaud is now France’s all-time record tryscorer
GETTY
Thankfully, we heard during the interval that De Jager was off for good and that the bonkers law that allows a player who has been carded to be replaced after 20 minutes did not apply because of the severity of the offence. Kolisi had no means of talking to the referee at all in the second half as he was summarily replaced himself, and sat in the back of the dugout looking very glum, a poor way to celebrate his 100th cap.
It was then just a matter of France completing the job and for some time, they made a hash of it. Louis Bielle-Biarrey, on the left wing, was put almost clear twice, but on each occasion what would have been a scoring pass went astray. Maddeningly for France, on the second occasion it was the great Penaud who loomed up in support, but Bielle-Biarrey passed behind his man when a simple pop pass would have sent Penaud around behind the post. But in the third quarter, another Springbok talisman departed — Eben Etzebeth was replaced, and at that stage it seemed that the match was very much at the mercy of the French, although the officials’ propensity to make errors left no one in the stadium feeling sanguine. And the writing was really on the stadium walls soon afterwards, when as part of a barrage of penalties awarded against France, Bielle-Biarrey was sent to the sin bin for trying to intercept a pass with one hand, and he knocked it on and disappeared, with television pictures showing him watching on in horror at what was to transpire. South Africa went for a drive from a lineout, were stopped, but the referee took them back to the same position soon afterwards, and a drive put André Esterhuizen over the line, and although the conversion by Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu hit the post, South Africa now led by a point.
Williams scored South Africa’s third try
GETTY
The penalties kept on coming and by now Grant Williams was on the field at scrum half, and he is much quicker and more difficult to hold in attack than many others, including Reinach, and he went sprinting over at the posts. By this time, the French brilliance in the first half was a distant memory. The conversion made it 17-25 and a game which really should have been there for the taking for France had slipped away quite alarmingly — and it was all they could do to stop Cheslin Kolbe from breaking away to score towards the end.
Etzebeth and Snyman parade Kolisi on his 100th cap
AFP
And as the last ten minutes ticked by, South Africa were looking the more likely scorers. The wreckage in blue was completed when the other South Africa half-back, Feinberg–Mngomezulu, went sprinting over, and you could tell by the faces of the South African fans in the crowd that there was disbelief among all the joy.
The Springbok forwards played superbly in the second half, whereas the French pack did not have replacements of the required standard once South Africa got going, and by the end, and as South Africa scored their final try, it was as if the sensational first half had not actually happened. Or was, in fact, simply a French dream. If France had held out it would have done their season wonders, but they have lost to the deadly South Africans again, and this time there will be no revenge.
Scorers: France: Tries: Penaud (4min, 27). Cons: Ramos (5, 28). Pen: Ramos (59). South Africa: Tries: Reinach (33), Esterhuizen (65), Williams (71), Mngomezulu (77). Cons: Mngomezulu (34, 72, 78). Pens: Mngomezulu (9, 13).
France T Ramos; D Penaud, P Barassi, G Fickou (N Depoortere 59), L Bielle-Biarrey (sin-bin 62), R Ntamack, N Le Garrec (M Lucu 59); B Erdocio (J Gros 47), J Marchand (G Cramont 47), R Montagne (D Aldegheri 47), T Flament, E Meafou (R Taofifenua 47), A Jelonch, P Boudehent (H Auradou 72), M Guillard (O Jegou 47).
South Africa D Willemse (M Libbok 56); C Kolbe, J Kriel, D de Allende (A Esterhuizen 47), K Arendse, S Mngomezulu, C Reinach (G Williams 59); B Venter (G Steenekamp 31), M Marx, T du Toit (W Louw 47), E Etzebeth (R Snyman 47), L de Jager (sent off 38; Nortje 10; de Jager 22), S Kolisi (R Nortje 41), P du Toit, J Wiese.
08 November 2025 11:01pm GMT
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed several kicks at goal but was man of the match after scoring South Africa’s fourth try Credit: Getty Images/David Rogers
FULL TIME
Rugby Union Internationals
France 17
South Africa 32
Venue: Stade de France · Match officials: Angus Gardner, Nika Amashukeli, Christophe Ridley, Ian Tempest (TMO)
By Charles Richardson, Rugby Reporter
at the Stade de France
What is it about this fixture and controversy? Two years since these sides last met in one of the most scintillating World Cup matches of all time, from which South Africa emerged victorious on their journey to global domination, the spotlight once again turned towards the officials.
The Springboks, remarkably, triumphed once again on Saturday night but, just as referee Ben O’Keeffe had captured the headlines for his handling of that quarter-final, the Australian Angus Gardner followed suit in Saint-Denis. What made this Springboks’ victory all the more sweeter was that, in the 39th minute, Gardner brandished a seldom-seen, straight-red card to South African lock Lood de Jager.
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THE moment Lood de Jager was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle Just listen to that French crowd
Last edited9:24 PM · Nov 8, 2025
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The Springboks, Rugby Championship victors, still managed to pull themselves together and demolish France, Six Nations champions, on their own patch, playing a half with only 14 players – and Les Bleus led by a point at the interval.
On the cusp of half-time, De Jager clobbered Thomas Ramos in the head with a tucked shoulder. It was ugly, reckless and needless but the reason for the controversy was that Ramos was slipping to the ground. Gardner spent an age consulting with his officials, however, and the outcome was that the South African’s arm being tucked behind him was enough for the judgment of egregious foul play. Harsh? Perhaps, but when you charge into contact like that, with force, you always run the risk.
But what is it about this fixture and thrills, too? The last four meetings between the sides have been separated by four points or fewer and here we had another nail-biter, with just one point in it, until South Africa took the lead for the first time with a little over 15 minutes to play. With Louis Bielle-Biarrey in the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on, the Springboks smelt blood – and feasted.
Andre Esterhuizen crossed from a driving maul for the decisive score but two more tries would come.
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The Springboks have the lead in Paris André Esterhuizen the man to dot down for South Africa
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Firstly, Grant Williams cheekily dummied his way over before Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu – the fly-half in supreme form scoring 17 of his side’s 32 points, – put the cherry on the South African cake. Alongside the flash of Feinberg-Mngomezulu, the graft of Malcolm Marx and Jasper Wiese was stupendous.
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Has that decided it!? Grant Williams does it himself to extend the Springboks' lead
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France regularly looked like their threatening selves but in the second half Les Bleus were taught a lesson in ruthlessness. The hosts let sundry opportunities slip and managed just a solitary three points from the boot of Ramos after half-time, a player to the good. France have not beaten South Africa at the Stade de France for 20 years and nothing that Les Bleus mustered in the second half on Saturday night presented a compelling case for that record to change. By the end, France looked listless and aimless, the result a foregone conclusion, leaving Fabien Galthié with plenty to ponder ahead of further Tests against Fiji and Australia.
On paper, it was the clash of this year’s autumn fixtures and certainly in terms of intensity and physicality the match lived up to its billing. Both sides were missing key men – Peato Mauvaka, Antoine Dupont and Ox Nche to name a few – but there was still enough quality among the two squads to label this an unofficial north-versus-south showdown, two years out from the next World Cup. Ultimately, on the occasion of Siya Kolisi’s 100th cap, the south won; South Africa did their captain proud. With the eyes of the rugby world on them, the Springboks had comfortably enough, laying down the gauntlet.
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"Everything I have done, it is not by my own doing..." A powerful full-time interview with Siya Kolisi after he won his 100th Test cap in Paris tonight
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At the time of De Jager’s red, however, there had barely been anything between the two sides. Penaud scored the first of his brace early on thanks to the fleetness of thought and foot of Ramos. The French full-back switched play to the blindside and chipped over exquisitely for Penaud to chase and cross unopposed.
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World class player to world class player Damien Penaud becomes France's all-time leading try scorer in STYLE
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Two long-range penalties from Feinberg-Mngomezulu cut France’s lead, before Cobus Reinach spotted some dawdling French forwards on the blindside, sniped through a gap, chipped over Penaud and crossed to tighten the scores.
Then came De Jager’s blunder. South Africa, with 14 players, clung on, before motoring. A Ramos penalty nudged Les Bleus further ahead but Bielle-Biarrey’s sin-binning proved to be the pendulum on which the match’s momentum would swing. Esterhuizen, Williams and Feinberg-Mngomezulu all crossed in a ferocious last 15 minutes to put the result, another famous Springboks victory, beyond doubt and offer France considerable food for thought
Scoring sequence: 5-0 Penaud try, 7-0 Ramos con, 7-3 Feinberg-Mngomezulu pen, 7-6 Feinberg-Mngomezulu pen, 12-6 Penaud try, 14-6 Ramos con, 14-11 Reinach try, 14-13 Feinberg-Mngomezulu con, 17-13 Ramos pen, 17-18 Andre Esterhuizen try, 17-23 Williams try, 17-25 Feinberg-Mngomezulu con, 17-30 Feinberg-Mngomezulu try, 17-32 Feinberg-Mngomezulu con.
France: T Ramos; D Penaud, P-L Barassi, G Fickou (c, Depoortère 59), L Double-barrelled; R Ntamack, N le Garrec (Lucu 59); B Erdocio (Gros 47), J Marchand (Cramont 47), R Montagne (Aldegheri 47), T Flament, E Meafou (Taofifenua 47), A Jelonch, P Boudehent (Auradou 71), M Guillard (Jegou 47).
South Africa: D Willemse (Libbok 56); C Kolbe, J Kriel, D de Allende (Esterhuizen 48), K-L Arendse; S Feinberg-Mngomezulu, C Reinach (Williams 59); B Venter (Steenekamp 31), M Marx (Grobbelaar 77), T Du Toit (Louw 48), E Etzebeth (Snyman 48), L de Jager (Nortje 10, De Jager 22), S Kolisi (c, Nortje 41), P-S du Toit, J Wiese.
Kieran Crichard live updates. Charles Richardson at the Stade de France
Joy for the Boks on Siya Kolisi’s big day Credit: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Getty Images
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"Everything I have done, it is not by my own doing..." A powerful full-time interview with Siya Kolisi after he won his 100th Test cap in Paris tonight
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“That was what we thought it was going to be against France. We were doing well in contestable kicks but were not getting points on the board but we stuck in there and it was great to win for Siya [Kolisi on his 100th cap]. It is good fun playing in this team. I am part of an incredible team and it is a dream to play for the Springboks. I got injured on the 28 December for the Stormers against the Sharks and Siya told me to hold tight and we would win together. He has done so much for me and this country.”
Last week it was the Kolbe/Arendse show, this week it was the Sacha/Williams show, who knows what it will be next week. Imagine being the opposition coach preparing a plan to beat the Boks? For a start how does he control individual brilliance when Sacha, Arendse and Williams play off instinct not a coaching manual. They don't know what they're going to do so how would the opposition know what they're going to do. They think on their feet and change the plan with every scan.
So who needs TonyBall(kidding) when we have individual brilliance(not kidding). Hahahaha
I dreamt of these days, there's a different kind of breeze in the air.
Ain't it great to be a Bok fan.
Extended hilites 16 min
press conference
eggie
No man, Blo! Jirre, don't don't copy paste and entire article toile that with all those kak emojis and shit.
I have to scroll for 10 days to get through it all.
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Sacha's try was just another example of how bloody good he is. He comes from the blindside, massive pace, collects and then manages the run in space perfectly in remaining a threat while keeping the option of the pass to outside open throughout.
It's that kind of instinctive stuff in how he so efficiently manages moments that really gets me.
In the second French try, he tracked all the way from 10 to wing to make the tackle. He didn't stop the try, but it just shows how much he does.
And then of course the offload that almost was. What do you call that? He was mid air, being spun around and then releases a pretty far offload out of the back of the hand...and really it should have stuck. Nobody in WR does that. I'm not sure anybody else is capable of it.
And they laughed when we compared him to Carter.
On that note, I was pissed to see Hooker not included. If Sacha is our Carter then Hooker is our Ben Smith. I don't see any reason for Hooker not to be starting the majority of games at this point.
I'm so pissed that Hannas got injured because he and Sacha should have been breaking out together this year.
Not sure I agree with Sacha as skipper. Perhaps I just nervous about disrupting a good thing. I'm probably wrong and he'll likely rise to it easily.
Well done Bokke. Just proves that the boks have been playing with 14 men for the past 6 years and having Kolisi not on the field that they are still able to win by 14 + points against the 6 nations champs.
Nobody is talking about Reinach, that try of his for the boks back in the game as the French looked like they were on top. If two or three of their lasses stuck it would have been a different game.
Manie had no impact on the game. Worst sub ever. Two charge downs. Got lucky that it only conceded a penalty.
No one is talking about Marx either. He had a phenomenal game and hit all of his jumpers and won ball in the deck. Kolisi got bosses at the breakdown as per usual. He is ultimately just a construct and hyped up mascot for the boks to prop up the Mandela message.
Well done Rassie for getting the boks to be a team that can play with 14 men.
Kolbe had some moment but butchered two tries by not passing. Really frustrating watching him beat the man on the outside and then he doesn't pass.
Not the most perfect game but in terms of grit and dominance, world class.
Really impressed how Rassie has transformed the boks. I might not always like his approach but he is now 74% win ratio. That is incredible after 51 games with 37 wins and a couple of draws
Oh, funny we start scoring tries once Dud went off too. Or wings finally start seeing the ball. Willemse had no impact and got caught of position a few times.
Sasha look good from. Such a talented player.
Hope Willemse can find his form.
Grant Williams is a fantastic sub.
Can't believe Reinach is our best 9 and he is 35 already.
We need to find another Reinach like 9. One that can take contact and not get bumped easily around the ruck