South Africa preparing for a fiery French fightback

WITH the disappointment of the Irish loss now relegated to the history books, the Springboks have to try to hobble on through the rest of the end-of-year tour.

The French are up next, and memories of a comprehensive three-nil whitewash at home in June may still be playing in their minds.

However, the Boks will do well to vanquish those memories as there is absolutely no room left for complacency after the record loss to Ireland.

The French will be an entirely different beast this time around, and they will smell blood, as well as retribution, for the South Africans.

The beleaguered Allister Coetzee has been wise enough to downplay expectations, drawing a line in the sand from the three match June series.

The French are now far more rested at the start of their season, are at home, and motivated for a win that is very attainable.

“It is not going to be the same French side that toured South Africa earlier this year, and I don’t read a lot into the game against the All Blacks, I thought they came back nicely,” the Bok caoch said.

“There are a lot of players playing well, so we have to prepare for a much improved French side.”

At least, on a technical level, the Bok coach knows where the French strengths and weak- nesses lie, applauding their forward play and in particular the scrums and mauls.

It is almost part of the French culture to put on a good performance at the scrum, especially for the home fans.

“They have a good powerful scrum, and a good maul, and we have to be sure that we can deal with that,” Coetzee added.

“But the focus is purely on us, and how much we learnt from last week, and how much we want to get better this week. The French will always be a threat here at home, and we have a lot of respect for them.”

Dealing with that forward momentum may be a little difficult for the Boks though as they have lost the services of Sharks prop Coenie Oosthuizen, and flank Pieter-Steph du Toit.

The prop was stretched off after only two minutes, badly damaging his knee, requiring surgery. Meanwhile, Du Toit suffered concussion, and has been ruled out.

Springbok hardman Duane Vermeulen is back in the squad as cover though, and it will be interesting to see how he is used in the next two games.

Coetzee alludes to the fact that there, of course, has to be an improvement, and a resounding bounce back for the hounds to be called off, even momentarily. He admitted after the game that there were no positives, but there are harsh lessons that have to be learnt.

Kick-off: 9.45pm