South Africa’s 29-28 World Cup quarter-final victory over France was decided by the finest of margins, coach Jacques Nienaber says, as the defending champions squeezed past the hosts and into the semi-finals.
The Springboks won an attritional contest, taking their opportunities to outscore the French four ties to three and set up a meeting with England at Stade de France in Paris on Saturday.
“Credit to the French first of all,” Nienaber said.
“We knew it was going to be this tight. Everybody knew it was going to be a big battle.
“There were two good teams and fortunately for us, we were on the right side of things.”
Nienaber’s early second-half changes nullified France’s advantage after Eben Etzebeth was sent to the sin bin, allowing South Africa to turn the tide after France kicked a 54th-minute penalty to go 25-19 ahead.
“With the yellow card we had to come up with solutions, but I must say that’s probably credit to the experience that we have in the squad,” the coach said.
“Stuff like that happens: they’ve been there before, they’ve been at a World Cup before and they’ve found solutions during the game.”
South Africa’s replacements outmuscled the tiring French and after Etzebeth’s try they held on to extinguish home hopes.
“I must give credit to the guys that came off the bench, they came and made a huge difference,” captain Siya Kolisi said.
Man-of-the match Bongi Mbonambi added: “All credit to the team, it was a whole team effort.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy playing the host team in their backyard, with a sold-out crowd singing their national anthem the whole time.
“We were just focused on what we had to do, we stayed on task. It was a great game of rugby.”
The Springboks now meet England in Paris on Saturday.
“It’s going to be a massive challenge. In the knockout rounds anything can happen, there are going to be small margins right to the end,” Nienaber said.