Les Bleus sink Springboks

France withstood a second half fight-back from South Africa to clinch a 26-20 win.

International Match, Saturday November 26, KO 20.00

It meant a fourth straight victory for Bernard Laporte's team who have also defeated Australia, Canada and Tonga in recent weeks.

Les Bleus made a fine start with two tries in the first ten minutes from Dimitri Szarzewski and Frederic Michalak putting them in control.

Szarzewski took advantage of some fine play from Serge Betsen who surged down the blind side before feeding the hooker who showed good pace to touch down ahead of the covering defence.

As the visitors pushed forward in search of a response they were caught by a classic counter and fell further behind.

Fly half Michalak intercepted a wayward pass from Jaques Fourie and scampered over half the length of the pitch to cross in the corner.

Jean-Baptiste Elissalde added a penalty on 13 minutes to put France 15-0 up, but Percy Montgomerie replied in kind four minutes before the interval to get the visitors on the scoreboard.

Elissalde kicked another penalty just after the restart, but the Springboks made further inroads into the lead when second row Bakkies Botha broke down the touchline to score, but there was a touch of controversy about the try.

As Botha strode clear the linesman appeared to be raising his flag to indicate a foot in touch, but then rested the flag on his chest allowing Botha to trot over the line and Montgomery added the extras.

But once again France wasted little time in responding as winger Aurelien Rougerie burst on to Elissalde's clever grubber kick to power past the final defender and storm over.

Flyhalfs Meyer Bosman and Michalak then exchanged penalties and although Fourie burst through the home backline with apparent ease to score under the posts late on, South Africa had left themselves too much to do as France emerged victorious.