Axel May, edited by Loane Nader // photo credit: Matthieu Mirville / DPPI via AFP
Supporters of the XV of France have bitter memories of their evening on Sunday. The South Africans, reigning world champions, won the match against the Blues (28-29), who fought until the end of this quarter-final. For the players of the French rugby team, the event was experienced as a trauma.
It’s the end of the Rugby World Cup for the France team since this Sunday evening. Inaccuracies, mistakes and some bad tactical choices earned them this quarter-final and the victory by extension. Fullback Thomas Ramos, for example, was blocked on a transformation which could and should have brought valuable points. “We had a very good start, but in the first half, we perhaps gave them too many points easily, they fed off our mistakes. And at this level, you pay cash, you take three tests. So there you have it, it’s down to nothing, down to details and unfortunately the details are on their side so it’s hard to take”, regrets the player.
Arbitration not “at the level of the issue”
The questionable refereeing decisions should not be overlooked in this one-point defeat, and left a bitter taste for team captain Antoine Dupont. “I don’t want to be angry and complain about the refereeing because he lost the match, but I’m not sure their refereeing was up to the challenge today,” he believes. he.
Finally, the substitutes or “finishers”, as coach Fabien Galthié likes to call them, did not succeed in reversing the course of the match, when on the other hand the South African coaching proved profitable. The French team is indeed full of talent, but for the third time in a row, it stops in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.