France teach Springboks a lesson
The Springboks are currently still on tour in Europe and have lost both their tour matches, the first match against Leicester in the United Kingdom and the second match against France in Toulouse. I hope that they break out of this losing streak. Perhaps it was the poor portrayal of the South African National Anthem before the match by Ras Dumisani that jinxed the performance of the Springboks in the match against the France. Or maybe the Springboks were just completely outplayed by the French on their home ground. Or it could have been the referee (Springbok fans love blaming the referee). It seems that everyone’s looking for a scapegoat to blame for the Springboks’ poor performance on Friday night in Toulouse. The Springboks have not beaten France on their home ground in a game of rugby since 1997 (when Nick Mallet’s Springboks beat the French by 52 points to 10). This may have been in the back of their minds as they started the match on Friday night. Julien Dupuy scored the first points of the game for France in the 6th minute of the first half. The Springboks only managed to reply with a penalty by Morne Steyn in the 20th minute. A few minutes later Morne Steyn kicked over a drop goal for South Africa, followed by a try for South Africa by the captain, John Smit. The Springboks were leading by 13 points to 3, but failed to score in the rest of the match. They had no reply to French try by wing Vincent Clerc and the other points scored by the French. 2 Yellow cards handed out to Kankowski and Morne Steyn didn’t help the Springboks either. In the end France beat the Springboks convincingly by 20 points to 13. The Springboks face Saracens in the UK in a mid week clash this week before facing Italy on the weekend. Let’s hope South Africa have their rugby playing boots on for the rest of their European tour.
This is video of Ras Dumisani performing the SA National Anthem before the match:
