Preview: France vs. South Africa - prediction, team news, lineups

France welcome South Africa to the Stade de France on Friday evening for the penultimate round of group matches in the inaugural Nations Championship tournament.

In their previous competition outing, Les Bleus kicked off their home leg of fixtures with a thumping victory against Fiji, while the Springboks continued their perfect campaign by beating Italy 66-7 at the Allianz Stadium.

Match preview

After becoming back-to-back Six Nations champions earlier in the year, coming from behind to narrowly beat England on the final weekend and pip Ireland to top spot, France will be happy on the whole with how they have performed in the opening Nations Championship campaign.

Although they were narrowly beaten by New Zealand in their competition opener, suffering a 34-32 defeat in Christchurch, Fabien Galthie’s men have responded in impressive fashion, securing three consecutive victories to climb to the top of the Northern Hemisphere table.

Throughout this run, Les Bleus’ greatest strength has undoubtedly been their devastating attack, with Friday’s hosts accumulating 170 points across their four Nations Championship fixtures, a tally bettered only by the Springboks, while scoring at least four tries in each of their previous 12 competitive outings.

However, France will certainly have to be at their best if they are to maintain their position at the summit of the table this weekend, with their 30-26 victory at the Stade de France in November 2022 their only success in the previous 10 meetings with the Springboks, who are also the only side to have inflicted a home defeat on Les Bleus in their previous 14 outings on familiar territory.

Following their second consecutive Rugby Championship triumph last year, pipping Argentina 29-27 at Twickenham in their final fixture to beat rivals New Zealand to the title only on score difference, South Africa will be delighted with their start to the inaugural Nations Championship tournament.

Having secured victory in each of their first four fixtures in this year’s campaign, defeating England, Scotland and Wales on home soil before thumping Italy 66-7 at the Allianz Stadium last weekend, the Springboks are one of just two sides, alongside the All Blacks, to maintain a perfect record in the competition and sit narrowly above Rennie’s men at the top of the Southern Hemisphere table.

With a combined 29 tries scored and just 56 points conceded so far, 35 fewer than their nearest challengers, Rassie Erasmus’s side have been the competition’s standout outfit at both ends of the pitch, once again underlining their all-round strength and seemingly complete lack of weaknesses.

Despite facing arguably their two toughest tests of this year’s competition over the next fortnight, with away trips to France and Ireland, the Springboks will be confident of maintaining their flawless record by overcoming the former on Friday evening, having triumphed on five of their previous six visits to Paris.

France Nations Championship form:

France form (all competitions):

South Africa Nations Championship form:

South Africa forms (all competitions):

Team News

With Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos and Matthieu Jalibert all ruled out through injury, Antoine Dupont has been forced to shift across and play fly-half for France this weekend, as Maxime Lucu fills the void then left at 9.

Les Bleus have also made just a pair of changes to the pack that faced Fiji last weekend as Maxime Lamothe and Paul Boudehent make way for Julien Marchand and Gregory Alldritt, the latter of whom comes in on the back row.

Aware of the threat posed by the Springboks’ forward-heavy ‘Bomb Squad’ replacements, Galthie has responded by naming a 6-2 split on his bench, with Rodrigue Neti among those to earn a recall to the matchday squad.

On the other hand, South Africa have named a completely unchanged backline to the one that started in Turin a week ago as Morne van den Berg remains at scrum-half, Jesse Kriel keeps his place at 13 and Damian Willemse rounds off the lineup at full-back.

In the scrum, there are a pair of differences for Erasmus’s men though as Lood de Jager comes off the bench to replace Salmaan Moerat on the second row, while Thomas du Toit drops out for Wilco Louw at tighthead prop.

Despite travelling with the squad after missing last weekend’s clash against Italy, Eben Etzebeth has been unable to force his way into the matchday 23, although South Africa still boast considerable front-row depth, with du Toit joining Gerhard Steenekamp and Jan-Hendrik Wessels among the replacements.

France starting lineup:

15 Theo Attissogbe, 14 Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, 13 Kalvin Gourgues, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Antoine Dupont, 9 Maxime Lucu; 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 2 Julien Marchand, 3 Sipili Falatea, 4 Florian Verhaeghe, 5 Mickael Guillard, 6 Francois Cros, 7 Cameron Woki, 8 Gregory Alldritt

Replacements:

16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 Regis Montagne, 19 Charles Ollivon, 20 Tom Staniforth, 21 Esteban Capilla, 22 Axel Desperes, 23 Emilien Gailleton

South Africa starting lineup:

15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Morne van den Berg; 1 Ox Nche, 2 Malcolm Marx, 3 Wilco Louw, 4 Lood de Jager, 5 Ruan Nortje, 6 Siya Kolisi, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 8 Jasper Wiese

Replacements:

16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Manie Libbok

We say: France 27-35 South Africa

Having enjoyed another successful Six Nations campaign and recovered from their opening weekend defeat to climb to the top of the Northern Hemisphere standings, France will be hoping to translate their encouraging form into a rare victory over South Africa on Friday evening.

However, with the Springboks boasting considerable squad depth and Les Bleus hampered by injuries to several key figures, we are struggling to see the hosts doing enough to prevent Erasmus’s side from claiming victory in Paris and are backing the visitors to carry their scintillating form into next weekend’s meeting with Ireland.