PARIS — France will host South Africa at the Stade de France on Friday 13 November in the Nations Championship round that decides who goes to Twickenham, but Fabien Galthié’s preparations have been hit by an injury crisis three weeks before rugby’s bitterest rivalry resumes. If New Zealand against South Africa is the greatest rivalry in the sport, South Africa against France have become the bitterest since Marseille in 2022, when France won by four, and Paris in 2023, when a one-point quarter-final ended a home World Cup.
France are without Matthieu Jalibert, Thomas Ramos, Emmanuel Meafou, Thibaud Flament, Demba Bamba and Lenni Nouchi for the entire tournament, whilst Julien Marchand and Régis Montagne are doubtful for the Springboks Test. France went south in July without their Toulouse spine and won anyway, and the plan was to arrive in November with a first-choice side intact for Fiji in Lyon, South Africa in Paris and Argentina a week later. Instead Galthié has three weeks to rebuild around what is left against the one opponent who punish a weakened tighthead more than any other.
The absence of Jalibert removes the conductor of the planned Bordeaux axis, where he was to start at ten with Yoram Moefana and Nicolas Depoortère outside him playing flat and fast through the hands. Without him that axis loses its shape and what replaces it is a hybrid of Toulouse halves and Bordeaux centres, with Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack at nine and ten bringing a kick-heavy game built off turnover and set-piece. Galthié will most likely stick with Moefana and Depoortère for experience, but pressure is building from Fabien Brau-Boirie, who made three line breaks and 16 tackles for Pau on Sunday and scored an intercept try from 35 metres, and Émile Gailleton, who has been close to the shirt for a year with an outstanding try-scoring record.
The tighthead position is the single biggest problem. Montagne has been outstanding when fit and no Frenchman is within a yard of him, whilst Bamba’s absence removes the obvious cover so Dorian Aldegheri is set to start. Aldegheri is a technician who wins the hit and pincers in at an angle, which works when timing is right and comes apart when it is not, as it did in Toulouse on Sunday before Ugo Mola took him off, with replacement Georges-Henri Colombe conceding the scrum penalty at 80 minutes that nearly cost Toulouse the game. Whoever takes the shirt will scrummage against Ox Nché or Gerhard Steenekamp, with Thomas du Toit or Wilco Louw to come, and will do so without Meafou and his 155 kilos of scrum ballast behind him.
In the engine room the loss of Flament — the lock who does a back-rower’s running for 80 minutes — and Nouchi shifts selection from form to miles on the clock, with the big call centred on Charles Ollivon. One option is the loose-forward Holy Trinity of Ollivon, Grégory Alldritt and François Cros with Mickaël Guillard in the second row alongside Cameron Woki, Scott Staniforth or Hugo Auradou; the other is Ollivon to four, where he has played before and takes more lineout ball than any other French player, with Guillard beside him and Oscar Jégou on the flank. France have real depth at nine, ten, 12, 13 and in the back row, but the drop from first choice to second at tighthead and in the second row is long, and South Africa — with two interchangeable front rows and a bench that arrives at 50 minutes with no drop in standard — are the side most likely to exploit it.