French ready to 'muscle up' in Marseille

INTERVIEW: France will need all the brute strength they can muster when they host South Africa at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille next week.

Before that grand grapple, the two teams get their year-end campaigns underway with two other high-profile encounters - Les Bleus hosting the Wallabies in Paris and the Springboks travelling to Dublin to take on the world's top-ranked team Ireland.

However, the 2023 World Cup hosts, France, are already casting a proverbial eye towards the Marseille mêlée.

The French come into this year-end mission with some pretty impressive form.

France is currently on a run of 10 straight victories, their joint longest winning run in Tests - their previous 10-match winning run having been from 1931 to 1937.

Les Bleus has not trailed their opponents at half-time in any of their last 23 international games.

France has won 15 of their last 16 matches on home soil, including each of their last six and scored 23 points or more in every game during that period.

They have not trailed at half-time in a home game since February 2018 - when they had a six-point deficit (3-9) against Ireland.

The clash with the world champions, South Africa, could be a dress rehearsal for a potential World Cup quarterfinal next year.

Antoine Dupont, the reigning World Player of the Year, captained France to its first Grand Slam in more than a decade.

For Dupont, that encounter with the Springboks is a tantalising prospect, having lost all three of his previous encounters with SA - since he first broke into the French side under Guy Novès and then Jacques Brunel.

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"Since the start of Fabien Galthié's time in charge [as coach], we've not played South Africa," Dupont told the website autumnnationsseries.com.

"Before that, we haven't been able to beat them for a long time," he said of a French losing streak that stretches back to a 20-13 win at Stade Toulouse in November 2009.

"We know the level they have," the scrumhalf said of the Springboks' strengths, adding: "They are the world champions and they have some very experienced players, really good players, and they know their rugby.

"They have more experience than us, but we can't wait to welcome them to Marseille.

"It will be a big match which will be very important for us.

"It's been a while since I played them.

"At the time, I was certainly lacking experience and we probably lacked collective experience as a team," he said of France's winless three-Test tour to South Africa in 2017.

"We were not as accurate and we didn't have the same structure on the pitch.

"We struggled to produce our rugby and when we went over there [SA], it was the moment that they managed to put together their best rugby together and it was really tough.

"We know that against South Africa, you have to be ready for the physical challenge.

"That was the case a few years ago and it will be again in Marseille."

* Source: autumnnationsseries.com