A wounded French side will be aching to bury memories of a painful 2023 Rugby World Cup (RWC) quarterfinal loss to the Springboks when the two juggernauts collide in Paris on Saturday, assistant coach Felix Jones says.
Pressure is building in the lead-up to arguably the biggest and most important Test of the season for both teams at the Stade de France (kickoff 10.10pm SA time).
It will be the first time the teams have met since the Boks’ nail-biting 29-28 victory against Les Bleus at the same venue.
Jones said the Boks’ focus was solely on trying to ensure they were as well prepared as possible.
“I don’t know [if they are seeing this as a revenge match],” he said. “I’m not sure how they are talking about it in their camp.
“That said, it would be hard to deny that they would have some regrets from that game that they would like to make right.
“We enjoy it every time we are here in France, and in general we have fond memories of being here, even when we lost the match in 2022 in Marseille.
“What happened in 2023 was positive too for many other reasons, but that’s in the past. Our focus this week is to give ourselves the best chance to perform well on Saturday.”
Jones was careful not to be drawn into the revenge aspect for France, and the Boks would approach the encounter as they did with any other Test match.
“I wouldn’t say any single Test match is bigger than another,” he said. “We’ve had some big games this year against New Zealand, and we lost a Test match against Australia at home.
“We also have clashes against Italy, Ireland, and Wales coming up after this, so every match is huge for us, though I can understand the extra attention this match is receiving after the World Cup quarterfinal in 2023.
“France are a huge threat — their entire pack is tough, and they have several quality players to select from.
“They’ve built a lot of depth in the past few years, so we are expecting this match to be as big a battle as it was against them in 2022 and 2023.
“Fabien Galthié [France head coach] has taken players who are lesser known on tour for their summer series a few times, and that’s a great exercise in building depth. But for this game, we are expecting them to select a different side.”
Asked about the decision to switch the Springbok team announcement from Monday to Thursday, Jones said, “If you look at our history, we’ve commonly changed the days of our team announcements.
“We lost Ox Nché to injury last weekend, and we have a competitive squad … we want to make sure we get our selection right before announcing our team.”
Springbok hooker Johan Grobbelaar said he was excited about possibly being selected to face France, and that if he were to play, it would be one of the most competitive matches he had participated in.
“It would be a massive opportunity for me to play this weekend, and since I don’t have a lot of Test caps, it will be one of my biggest games yet,” he said.
“This is my first time in Paris, and to be here with players of this quality is awesome. It’s going to be a huge battle.”
