France on a revenge mission? Springboks’ Felix Jones doesn’t know

Springbok assistant coach Felix Jones doesn’t know if revenge will be at the forefront of France’s mind when the teams clash for the first time since the 2023 World Cup quarterfinal, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis on Saturday.

The Boks famously triumphed 29-28 on that occasion, wrecking the hosts’ hopes of lifting the Webb Ellis Cup on home soil, while the South Africans went on to clinch a second straight title.

Much of the talk ahead of the match this Saturday has been about France still smarting from that defeat, where a few controversial calls also added to the sense of injustice from the French fans, that even led to death threats against Bok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach.

However, Jones claimed that the Boks view this weekend’s game as any other and aren’t worrying themselves with how their opponents are approaching it.

“I don’t know (if they want revenge), is my honest answer. I don’t know how they are talking about it in their camp. I think obviously it’s hard to deny there are some regrets from that match that they would like to put right,” said Jones at a Springbok press conference on Monday.

“So I’m not sure how they are shaping it. I wouldn’t say any single Test match is bigger than another one. There’s been some big games for us this year.

“We played against New Zealand and lost a Test match against Australia at home, we also have Italy after this game, and later tour Ireland and Wales. So for us, every Test match is massive. Every time we represent South Africa, it is huge.”

Back in France

The Boks are, however, happy to be back in the country where they have played their last four matches against the hosts stretching back to 2017.

In that time they have won all three games played in Saint Denis, triumphing 18-17 in 2017 and 29-26 in 2018, while they went down 30-26 in Marseille in 2022. The World Cup meeting in 2023 was their last win in the country.

“We enjoy it every time we’re here in France. We’ve got fond memories, even from the match we lost in Marseille in 2022. What happened in 2023 was positive for many reasons, but that’s in the past. Our focus now is to give ourselves the best chance to perform well on Saturday,” said Jones.

The Boks were meant to name their team for the match on Monday, with captain Siya Kolisi set to make his 100^th appearance, but an injury to powerhouse prop Ox Nche against Japan possibly led to a late decision to shift the team announcement to Thursday.

“If you look at our history, we often change the day of our announcements. We’ve got a very competitive squad, and we want to make sure we get our selection right,” explained Jones on the decision.