You could almost hear the collective cheering across the rugby world when the final whistle went in Paris on Friday night and the French pulled off a stunning win over the Springboks.
And while the Boks will be kicking themselves for their issues of discipline, lack of accuracy in the match, and some below-par performances, they will need to regroup exceptionally quickly as Ireland wait in Paris.
Firstly, a loss doesn’t make this Springbok team bad in any way. An off-night at Stade de France, against a team inspired by Antoine Dupont, is not any reason to panic.
This Bok team has come through worse trials and has stood up pretty quickly and bounced back in good form as well. But it is a loss. And with that comes introspection
The same type of introspection that should be done calmly and not from an emotional viewpoint. On Friday night, the Boks were beaten by a half of rugby where everything went right for France.
The exceptional play of Dupont sending the ball through for Louis Bielle-Barray was something to witness and a testament to the type of talent Dupont is.
His tackle on Pieter-Steph du Toit to hold him up and the dive on the ball to win the game in the final minute show the influence he has, and he was a massive part of the French win.
FRENCH DEFENCE SUPERB
But take that against the backdrop of the entire French defensive performance. While the Boks got pinned several times for offsides, the French side were so quick off the mark that they closed down the Bok attacking space exceptionally well, and amazingly never conceded an offside penalty for it.
They were sharp, motivated and on their feet doing everything the Bok rush defence normally does. Then in the aerial battle, they reigned supreme.
France kicked nine contestables, and won seven back. The Boks kicked 11 and won three back. This is a major part of the Bok game plan, and it never fired for them. It would only be right to point out that the Boks halfbacks never got on top.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s performance was the opposite of last weekend in Turin. As sensational as he was there in Italy, he was poor, rushed, and struggled in Paris. Morne van den Berg did the same.
The aerial kicks were poor and often too far, and the Boks struggled to give themselves any sort of momentum because of it.
HALFBACK STRUGGLES
And with the halfbacks' struggles came the rest of the backline. It’s tough to expect them to play Tonyball when the service from the game drivers isn’t on par.
Manie Libbok struggled as well when he came on, and for once the Boks had few answers behind their pack.
That pack bludgeoned its way forward, but overdid the scrum domination again. While we all love the Bok juggernaut moving forward, a serious question must be asked when driving the point home doesn’t work.
This is the third time now - in Dublin last year the referee stopped giving cards and penalties; at Ellis Park against the All Blacks the continual scrum backfired and started the All Blacks' big win; and now in Paris it happened again.
Andrea Piardi had an excellent game otherwise, but his abdication of those scrums gave France new life, and they took it.
But hearing Cobus Reinach tell his forwards to “skrum hulle na die doodlyn toe” (scrum them to the deadball line) was tempting fate, and unfortunately referees are inclined to stop rewarding the scrum if they feel it is getting too much.
That should never be the case, but this is the third time it has happened, and the Boks should learn from it.
NO EXCUSES
Thankfully, Rassie Erasmus wasn’t making excuses afterwards. The Boks had been beaten by a combination of French brilliance and their own inaccuracy.
“France played really well, and we didn’t, so I can’t find a lot of excuses. They took their opportunities when they got them, and we didn’t,” Erasmus said. “It’s probably a cliché, but I definitely think we had enough opportunities and there were simple tries we could have scored with one last pass, and perhaps one or two wrong decisions, such as not kicking for the corner and rather expecting the referee to give four penalties in a row.
“In front of a crowd like this you might feel you have dominance, but it’s just human not to keep on penalising the home team if they’ve already got a card or two.
But in the end, it comes down to the fact that they played well, and we didn’t.” The Boks know they can put their Paris nightmare behind them, and they can bounce back in Dublin.
The Nations’ Championship is probably over, and that’s that. The flawed draw was always going to be tough, and the Boks needed to go unbeaten on this tour to make the final. The irony that New Zealand, so well beaten in the RGR series, have the advantage on the log won’t matter much in the cold light of day.
What will matter is that the Boks were beaten, and they were a shadow of the team they should be at times. Dublin is the place to put that right, and it won’t be easy, but there is a wake-up call for this team less than a year out from the World Cup.
The world was rejoicing in knowing the Boks could be beaten. And while it was a sensational test match and France deserved their victory, from a Bok point of view it was a wake-up call. How they respond will be very interesting indeed.