With a brutal forward battle expected against Les Bleus in Paris, South Africans cannot afford lapses

Facing a French team that “loves to scrum” in Paris on Friday night, loosehead prop Ox Nché has acknowledged the forwards are in search of a Springboks-standard performance after a concerning Italian job in Turin last week.

The Boks face off against France at Stade de France (10.10pm SA time), as coach Rassie Erasmus’s team continue their push to reach the Nations Championship final in two weeks’ time.

Loosehead prop Nché, having played France twice in the past three years — during the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal and last year’s Test match — understands Friday night will see a tough battle, with scrummaging and physicality likely to be the defining factor.

The Boks know the French love to scrum and they have both the passion and the players for it. However, the back-to-back world champion Springboks are, on form and recent history, favourites, having won convincingly (43-17) last year, though the narrow 29-28 World Cup victory at the same venue in 2023 was far more tightly contested, the French also raising questions over the officiating.

Last year, the Boks played the entire second half with 14 men and still recorded a flawless scrum, winning six out of six on their own put-in, while France won only two of their four.

“All the guys that play in the Top 14, they’ll tell you, the French love their scrums, are passionate about their set pieces and have a lot of big boys, heavy boys, who actually want to scrum. I think that French team is a good example of how rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes,” Nché said.

“The [French] guys are really good at the scrum and you can see they’ve been very consistent throughout, even in the Six Nations this the year and even their teams in the European Championship.

“They definitely bring a similar challenge to basically playing a local derby where it almost feels like it’s actually very personal for the guy [you’re] coming up against.”

The Boks will look to rectify their mistakes from the dominant 66-7 victory against Italy in Turin last week, where they found themselves chasing the game in the opening half as Italy competed well in the first few scrums and managed to stop the first three or four lineout mauls.

Nché did not shy away from acknowledging the mistakes made by the South Africa pack. It will be crucial the Springboks rectify mistakes against a team as deadly team as France, which will capitalise on any loose aspects.

“The Italians did very well. They put a lot of pressure on us and we fell a bit out of system, and we were just not on the same page as a pack. We analysed that game and saw there’s quite a bit of work that we have to do,” Nché said.

“Italy were definitely more determined than we were, and they all had one similar goal in mind, and I think we were just a bit loose.

“We have found solutions for that and now we’re looking to naturally try to fix that and get a better performance that matches our standards.”