Marseille dry run in 2022 prepped Boks for France quarter-final — Davids

The Springboks‘ tight loss against France in Marseille on their end-of-year-tour last year has prepared them and given them a good idea of what to expect when they face the World Cup hosts in their quarterfinal clash at the Stade de Paris in Saint-Denis on Sunday night.

The hosts emerged with a tight 30-26 win on that occasion, after the Boks lost loose forward Pieter-Steph du Toit to a red card early in the first half, but rallied to just miss out on what would have been a fantastic win in the end.

ALSO READ: Rassie Erasmus relieved Boks can fly flag and sing anthem

Bok assistant coach Deon Davids admitted that the electric atmosphere inside the stadium was a good experience for the guys and something they will remember going into this weekend’s game.

“We are playing against the World Cup hosts in what is going to be a massive atmosphere on the day. Last year we had a dry run when we faced them in Marseille and some of the players had a taste of playing in the World Cup knock-out stages in Japan in 2019,” said Davids.

“That said, we need to adapt well on the day and be razor sharp in our execution. Playing against France in this beautiful city (Paris) in a Rugby World Cup quarter-final is big, and I don’t think any team needs more motivation than that.

“They are a formidable team, they’re ranked second in the world, and they’ll have the home crowd behind them, so they’ll be a massive opponent. They are definitely the favourites going into the match and also don’t have (any) weaknesses at this stage.”

Hit ground running

The Boks will need to hit the ground running from the first minute against France as they will have had two weeks of not playing since their last pool match against Tonga, so they will need to be as sharp as they could be.

They played four straight pool games before having their bye on the last weekend of pool action, while France had their bye earlier in the competition and played their last game against Italy this past Friday.

The Boks have, however, experienced this before, at the 2019 World Cup in Japan, so they should still be well prepared and ready for the match.

“There’s always a fine line when it comes to whether the week off helps going into such a match or whether it’s better to go in with the momentum from a previous match,” said Davids.

“I don’t think there is a right answer. In our case, we came off four straight matches, and it was good to give the players a few days off with their families and to recharge.”