France took on the Springboks at the Stadium Municipal, Toulouse, France, in the 1st Test for the Bokke on their 2009 End of Year Tour. France won a needly match by 20 / 13.

The game started on a wonky note, with a dread-locked singer absolutely demolishing our National Anthem (This guy cannot sing, he better smoke some more dope), then the youngster who was supposed to kick the mock kick-off, as is the French tradition, slipped and fell down.

When the game eventually started, both Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield went off for blood, to be replaced every time by Andries Bekker, soon enough after kick-off.

The French were motivated and drew first blood, pun intended, via a Penalty by Dupoy. Morné Steyn soon equalised and followed up with a well worked drop goal.

The French conceded an easy try by John Smit after a wayward lineout throw in on their 5m line. John caught the ball and simply stormed over. Morné converted.

It was sudenly 13 / 3… but this was very short-lived and after Kankowski knocked a ball from a high kick and the French stormed to a position close to the Bokke goal line and slipped the ball wide right, for Vincent Clerc to score an unconverted try.

The score was now 13 / 8.

Before half time, Dupoy converted another penalty, bringing the half time score to Bokke 13 / France 11. This penalty saw Morné Steyn being yellow-carded, having to sit out the first 10 minutes if the 2nd half.

Not much damage was done in the 10 minutes, apart from a penalty which was converted by Dupoy just before Morné was due back.

France was now leading 14 / 13.

Kankowski was yellow-carded near the Bokke line and fortunately the easy kick was missed. Kankowski had a teriible evening with lots of knock-on’s and seemed clearly out of his depth. I would be surprised if he was selected to play in any of the remaining 3 matches, he was simply woeful.

The French put the last nails in the Bokke coffins with 2 penalties, one from Dupoy and one from replacement scrum half, Morgan Parra.

This was simply not good enough from the Springboks, the scrums were going backwards at a rate of knots, dicipline was lacking and 2 players might be cited… Bryan Habana for a kick on a French player on the floor and Morné Steyn for a stray foot, which earned him the yellow.

The French have brought the high-flying Bokke back down to MOTHER EARTH… and the lessons to be learnt was that our scrums are weak, that we need to keep composure and knuckle-down to play actual rugby! 

Congratulations to the French for unsettling the Springboks.

One thing I never do is blame a Referee… and I will keep that tradition. A good Team wins, despite the Referee…. let that sink in!

Points:

France: 4 Penalties Julien Dupuy, 1 Try Vincent Clerc, 1 Penalty Morgan Parra

Springboks: 1 Penalty & 1 Drop Goal & 1 Conversion Morné Steyn, 1 Try John Smit

Teams:

France: 15 Damien Traille, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Yann David, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Imanol Harinordoquy, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (captain), 5 Romain Millo-Chluski, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Fabien Barcella
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Sylvain Marconnet, 18 Sébastien Chabal, 19 Julien Bonnaire, 20 Morgan Parra, 21 David Marty, 22 Maxime Médard.

South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Adi Jacobs, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 John Smit (captain), 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Wian du Preez, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Andries Bekker, 20 Danie Rossouw, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Wynand Olivier.

Date: Friday, 13 November 2009
Kick-off: 20.45 (19.45 GMT 21.45 SA time)
Venue: Stadium Municipal, Toulouse
Expected weather conditions: Overcast with a high of 18°C, dropping to 10°C and a light wind from the southeast.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees: George Clancy (Ireland), James Jones (Wales)
Television match official: Graham Hughes (England)