Springboks ride high spirits before Paris Test

Share current article via EmailShare current article via FacebookShare current article via TwitterShare current article via LinkedInLuke AlfredEnter fullscreen mode displaying this image.ExpandSpringbok center Jesse Kriel fends off Italy’s Paolo Odogwu in their Nations Championship clash at Juventus Stadium in Turin on November 7, 2026. Picture: Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse/Shutterstock/BackpagePix Story audio is generated using AI

The nine tries the Springboks scored against a lacklustre Italy in Turin on Saturday would seem the only metric that counts. True.

But there’s also something a little less tangible going on with the Boks as they head to France and Friday night’s Test with the Tricolores in Paris.

Let’s call it mood. Sure, mood is wishy-washy. It isn’t rooted in empirical facts or hard realities. But in another way mood is everything, ranging from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s growing bromance with Damian Willemse to the fact that Tony Brown in the coach’s box seems to have found the knack of making Rassie Erasmus grin.

Jesse Kriel and Damian de Allende are so comfortable with each other as centre partners that you get the feeling that one of them knows whether the other one wants coffee or tea.

Behind the big cars and the steakhouse adverts, players are mortals like you and me. They have memories.

Kriel will have particularly fine memories of that World Cup quarterfinal against France in 2023, in which he helped grind down their attacking intent.

Who can forget that tackle from behind on flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert? Or his cruncher on outside centre Gaël Fickou? Kriel was immense.

Jasper spots the gap and drops gear 🤩⚡📺 Stream #NationsChampionship on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/hmQpoeiVMb

Kriel is the kind of human wall you don’t want to run up against because he’ll stop you from going any further. Paris is surely Kriel’s happy place. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world. As he said after the 2023 quarterfinal: “It’s one of the loudest crowds I’ve played in front of — the French were unbelievable. It was an awesome atmosphere and experience.”

The Boks are playing with great, billowing confidence — another example of mood. No one exemplifies this better than Bulls lock Ruan Nortjé, a comparatively late starter in international rugby with a bottleneck of stellar locks such as Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert and Lood de Jager up ahead of him. Nortjé is a crucial cog in the Springbok system. He wins his line-out ball; he tackles like a demon. There’s nothing too messy down in the pit of the game he won’t do.

The All Blacks were hugely impressive in beating Scotland 43-21 at Murrayfield on Saturday, scoring seven tries and 19 unanswered second-half points in the process, but their line-out is as creaky as an old Volkswagen Beetle with peace signs on the bonnet. Against better sides — such as England, whom they meet in two weeks — their lack of a functioning line-out will count against them. What wouldn’t they do for a banker such as Nortjé?

Come for the 50-22, stay for the celebration 😏🙌📺 Stream #NationsChampionship on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/AKHfhNARvl

Given the mood in the side and the sense of the Boks’ manifest destiny at the moment, a victory against France would appear to be a foregone conclusion. But let’s be careful. Italy rallied in the second half in Turin after Azzurri coach Gonzalo Quesada doubtlessly reminded them that an international rugby match is no Waldorf School.

The Italians were quicker off their defensive line as a result; they were more robust in the tackle. They belatedly reached the conclusion they could compete after they started off the Test not really believing they could compete at all.

Such is the success dividend. The Springboks are on such a roll after having beaten the All Blacks three times out of four in midyear that many teams they now play against have lost the game in the head long before they lace up their boots. That’s a great position to be in, knowing you’re ahead before you start.

This said, France (the country) is in a strange headspace, what with the hardening of political positions on the left and the right and widespread protest over the cost of living and issues such as emigration. The Springboks might just have wandered blithely into a booby-trapped backyard, where the fact that they are champions of the world will count for nothing.

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