THE NEWS THE rugby world has been waiting for all week will arrive tomorrow when France name their team to face South Africa. France’s star man Antoine Dupont was permitted to return to full contact training earlier this week and took part wearing a head guard after undergoing surgery on a fractured cheekbone. The expectation is that he will be included to face the Springboks in Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final at the Stade de France.
Naturally, Dupont’s anticipated selection was one of the main talking points during South Africa’s media conference in Paris today.
“World Player of the Year – if you have that title you are a special player and he has proven it playing for Toulouse and for the French team,” said scrum-half Cobus Reinach.
“Every game he plays is [like] some highlights reel of a magic moment – a cross-kick or a pass or putting someone over the try line. He is an unbelievable player. We haven’t spoken a lot about whether he is going to play or not. We are just focusing on making sure our systems and plans work.”
“The presence is something that you can see,” added former Ireland international and current South Africa assistant coach, Felix Jones.
He has a big impact on the players around him and [their] belief. Everyone knows the quality of player. We can’t control the presence he brings, we can only control trying to stop the many talents and abilities that he has.
“If it’s (Maxime) Lucu, there are some really effective pieces of play he can put together. We can’t control the presence but we can try and stop what’s happening.”
South Africa typically name their team early in the week but this time they’ve delayed the announcement until Friday. One of the bigger decisions facing Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber is at out-half, where Handre Pollard is expected to start ahead of Manie Libbok, whose kicking from the tee can be erratic.
“It is very tight in a number of positions and fly-half is very tight,” Jones added.
“Handre has been there and done it before for us in that starting role, but Manie is also playing some really great rugby for us.
“Penalties does come into our consideration. There could be 10 penalties in a game, but there are 100 rucks, seven or eight scrums. There could be 20 line-outs so it is just one of our considerations.
“There have been a number of games over the last two to three years where it comes down to the last play of the game or the last kick of the game or a penalty in the last minute or two either way, giving one away or receiving one,” he added. “We have also won a lot of games in those dying few minutes.
“We expect this to be a very tight game. What do you do to overcome that? You probably don’t want to let it get to that stage and try and nail your biggest moments in the first 70 minutes so it doesn’t come to that point. But if it does you need to be accurate. We were disappointed we couldn’t finish off our last opportunity against Ireland.”
Jones also discussed his previous encounters with France head coach Fabien Galthié.
“There is a real resilience in what he’s built in comparison to what had gone on before. I wasn’t coaching at international level back then. Fabien came and visited us in Munster before he’d taken that job and we got to know him a bit. Rassie [Erasmus] and Jacques [Nienaber] were still there.
“It’s a very tight group that play for each other. You’ve never beaten France until the last few moments of the game, the very last play. The depth that has been built.
“Look at their depth at hooker even with [Julien] Marchand who could potentially miss out if he’s still injured. Even if he isn’t there, there are two or three guys ready to step in who are tier-one test excellence. You can say the same about Antoine Dupont. If he does play, he is one of the world’s best players, a World Player of the Year, but [Maxime] Lucu behind him has also been absolutely outstanding for them.”
