France captain Antoine Dupont said on Friday that beating Rugby World Cup holders South Africa 21-19 was important to show that his side are capable of grinding out victories when it matters.
Dupont's outfit held off a stirring second-half Springbok comeback in Paris to remain top of the northern hemisphere table in the Nations Championship having come into the fixture as underdogs.
The half-back, who turns 31 on Sunday, put in a player of the match performance as Les Bleus kept out the visitors with a last-gasp defensive effort, succeeding where they had failed in a World Cup quarter-final lost by a single point three years ago.
"In the head it's important to win matches that count, that are tough, that go down to the last minute," Dupont told broadcaster TF1.
"It shows the mentality of the team that never gave in, even if we had it hard on our line," the 2021 World Rugby player of the year added.
Dupont was named to start the game at fly-half for a first time in international rugby with France down to their fifth-choice playmaker after Romain Ntamack's injury in last weekend's win over Fiji.
Despite wearing the number 10 jersey, Toulouse's Dupont featured in his regular scrum-half position with Maxime Lucu in the nine shirt but deputising for Ntamack.
Head coach Fabien Galthie paid tribute to his captain, joking that he had been all over the pitch playing in several positions.
He even helped hold up South African flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit over the line to deny South Africa a try and won a crucial turnover to see out the game.
"Sometimes I call him a good back rower, he doesn't like that much but he was a good back rower today," said Galthie.
"He played at nine, a little bit of 10, and a good six.
"And he kicked well. A six who can kick as well -- the complete package.
"He doesn't want to play at hooker, but if you ask me, he played a bit in every position. "He nailed his match, he wanted to do that."
'WE KILLED OUR DREAMS'
South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus could not hide his disappointment at losing their perfect record in the tournament, having picked up the maximum five points in their previous four matches.
"If we scored one more try, we would have got five points from this game and we would have been in the running" to top the southern hemisphere group and reach the final at Twickenham in two weeks' time, Erasmus said.
"We basically killed our dreams for the Nations Cup tonight with this performance and not getting the win and the fourth try.
"Maybe they were also in that mindset of getting four tries and trying to top the Northern League."
Erasmus said his team had not lacked much to come away with a victory.
"Them playing very well and we didn't play well, so I can't find a lot of excuses," he said.
"They were on top of their game and we were a little bit off... one point here, one point there.
"Tonight, they took the opportunities when they got it and we didn't.
"It's an old cliché. I definitely think we had enough opportunities.
"Simple tries, we could have scored with one lost pass and then maybe one or two wrong decisions."