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France v South Africa - 8/11/2025

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OllyM97

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Could be the game of the Autumn and the most bad-tempered one. France still seem utterly obsessed about that game in 2023 - they’ve never stopped talking about it. Apparently Galthie has cancelled the open training session they normally have because he’s worried about the Springboks spying on them!!. The whole French buildup to this game is weird. I think SA will win tbh, they’ll play the game and not the occasion. France have got injuries up front as well. I think SA could pull away late and win by around 10 points.
 
I just hope that the referee is up for the occasion the French are insisting this match is. For me the biggest fixture of the year was Edenpark and my feeling was that the refereeing panel weren't quite up to it. We need to take advantage of that ourselves. Under pressure they tend to not want to make any calls.

We need to be accurate enough to take that out of the equation or failing that get under the skins of the officials ourselves.

To be honest after the amount of bitterness I've seen on social media I would welcome a close win with a little controversy if only for the memes.
 
Had a couple of Paris based colleagues in the office yesterday and they had a different perspective to what you see on social media (which of course, is always where the worst of the worst are).

Apparently there isn’t as much focus or talk about this game as the media is hyping it up to be. Just generally there seems to be less interest in these Autumn Internationals and the fans know their team isn’t as strong as it was with all the injuries to key positions.

Also I’ve seen the media try to stir things up with poor translations of media interviews (e.g. a quote saying SA stole the World Cup from them, when the correct translation was took that away from us- followed by words about it being a good team etc.)

I’m personally quite nervous for this one though. I don’t enjoy having France as the underdog team and we saw in New Zealand how an underdog, weakened France can still almost win big matches. I’d be happy if we just scrape by in this one.
 
saulan said:
Had a couple of Paris based colleagues in the office yesterday and they had a different perspective to what you see on social media (which of course, is always where the worst of the worst are).

Apparently there isn't as much focus or talk about this game as the media is hyping it up to be. Just generally there seems to be less interest in these Autumn Internationals and the fans know their team isn't as strong as it was with all the injuries to key positions.

Also I've seen the media try to stir things up with poor translations of media interviews (e.g. a quote saying SA stole the World Cup from them, when the correct translation was took that away from us- followed by words about it being a good team etc.)

I'm personally quite nervous for this one though. I don't enjoy having France as the underdog team and we saw in New Zealand how an underdog, weakened France can still almost win big matches. I'd be happy if we just scrape by in this one.
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I agree 100 % with you,
I think the team with the least errors will win this game, its going to be close and as you said france as an underdog(which these days they shouldn't be) is very dangerous.

Lets hope the boks seatpiece work and our kicking game is on point,then we are very hard to beat.
 
saulan said:
Had a couple of Paris based colleagues in the office yesterday and they had a different perspective to what you see on social media (which of course, is always where the worst of the worst are).

Apparently there isn't as much focus or talk about this game as the media is hyping it up to be. Just generally there seems to be less interest in these Autumn Internationals and the fans know their team isn't as strong as it was with all the injuries to key positions.

Also I've seen the media try to stir things up with poor translations of media interviews (e.g. a quote saying SA stole the World Cup from them, when the correct translation was took that away from us- followed by words about it being a good team etc.)

I'm personally quite nervous for this one though. I don't enjoy having France as the underdog team and we saw in New Zealand how an underdog, weakened France can still almost win big matches. I'd be happy if we just scrape by in this one.
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I actually heard similar yesterday, French fans seem to view these as actual friendlies alla football, and there isnt a huge noise about this autumn.

Game of the weekend for me, prime slot, prime time SA rolling into town, will be interesting to see how France fair at home.

I was dissapointed to see them use the summer as development, i cant remember which comentator made the claim, but they likened France to unconfident contenders, if they want to be taken seriously, they need to win on SH soil on a regular basis.
 
Hard to see past a Boks win after their recent win in a hotly contested RC. France are not the 2023 side in that quarter final with 7 first-starters missing (Dupont Mauvaka Atonio Cros Alldritt Jalibert Moefana). There's issues and the dearth of France qualified THs is one. Where's the famed depth? Galthié doesn't pick the national team, the Top 14 does. I'm not sure about starting two young inexperienced props against this Boks team. Good prep for the 6N though.
 

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