Boks v France: ‘We don’t want it to come down to the dying minutes’

The Springboks will be targeting a big opening 70 minutes against France in their Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Saint-Denis on Sunday, as they don’t want the result to be decided at the death.

Over the past year the Boks have suffered three tight defeats against the world’s top two ranked teams, Ireland and France, and they don’t want to repeat that in their knockout clash this weekend.

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On their end-of-year-tour last year the Boks were edged 19-16 by Ireland in Dublin, 30-26 by France in Marseille and earlier in the World Cup Ireland again clinched a tight 13-8 win.

Accuracy

Bok assistant coach Felix Jones admits that accuracy will be key for whichever team wants to come out on top and progress to the competition semi-finals.

“There have been a number of games over the last two to three years where it comes down to the last play or the last kick of the game. Or a penalty in the last minute or two either way, giving one away or receiving one. We have also won a lot of games in those dying few minutes,” explained Jones.

“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.”

Fabien Galthie

Jones and the rest of the coaching team are well aware of what French coach Fabien Galthie has instilled in his side over the past few years, turning them into one of the best teams in the world and one of the favourites to lift the Webb Ellis Cup.

“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,” said Jones.

“Fabien came and visited us in Munster before he’d taken that (France) job and we got to know him a bit. Rassie (Erasmus) and Jacques (Nienaber) were still there.

“It’s a very tight group that plays 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 (is amazing).”