Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has praised his team for not giving up and ultimately getting the better of France in a tight Test played in Paris on Saturday night.
The Boks clinched a come-from-behind 29-26 win after trailing 9-16 at half-time and also being 9-23 behind in the early part of the second half.
A late Bongi Mbonambi try – five minutes after the hooter had sounded and following a turn-over penalty deep in their own half with France on the attack – saved the day for the Boks.
The replacement hooker crashed over after a strong driving maul following a series of lineout wins – in which he routinely found his jumpers.
Kolisi said it was extremely pleasing to get rewarded like that at the end of a tight battle.
“The amazing thing is we could have given up when Cheslin Kolbe’s try was disallowed (when he lost the ball going over the line, and also when Aphiwe (Dyantyi) was denied a try because of as forward pass. But we kept fighting,” said Kolisi.
“The message the whole week was about improving and being better than the week before (against England). When we most needed our maul to work this week (right at the end), it worked and came through for us.”
Kolisi added his team had simply been out-muscled by France in the first half of the match. “They simply dominated us. That was the big thing ... we didn’t make any technical errors or such, but they got over the gainline, got over the ball, and we couldn’t move them.
“They won the physical battle in the first half, but we were much better after the break.”
Coach Rassie Erasmus was more blunt, admitting his side had not delivered a clinical performance.
“Last week (against England) we lost in the last minute; this week we won it in the last minute ... so it’s a much better feeling this time,” said Erasmus.
“But this was not a perfect performance, it was definitely not a clinical performance, but it was a gutsy effort.
“Last week we took the ball through 15 phases to try win a penalty and the game; this week we had to score a try and (referee) Nigel (Owens) had the guts to award us some penalties ... and we got the reward.”
Erasmus added it was important to note France are no pushovers. “You have to see every win in context ... France are not the pushovers of a year ago. We could have easily lost the match ... but we were on the right side of the result today.”
The Boks now move on to Edinburgh and a date with Scotland on Saturday.