The French media have not held back after Les Bleus once again came unstuck against the Springboks.

On Saturday night, the hosts suffered a 32-17 defeat at the Stade de France that reopened the wounds of their 2023 World Cup quarter-final heartbreak.

“Despite leading on the scoreboard and enjoying a numerical advantage for most of the match, Fabien Galthié’s men crumbled in the final quarter of an hour and were ultimately swept aside by the reigning two-time world champions,” wrote Jérémy Fadat for  reporters under the headline “New Nightmare at the Stade de France”.

He captured the emotional weight surrounding the fixture, calling it “the match of the year” – one France had to win to “heal the wound” of 2023. Instead, he said, the Springboks’ physical dominance again proved decisive.

When you face the reigning two-time world champions, who have built their dominance on the physical challenge they impose on their opponents, the atmosphere suddenly becomes brutal. Bestial even. Violent.”

 Laurent Campistron was equally blunt in his piece headlined “The Slap”, admitting that France had been outclassed by a team that “always wins with the same recipe”.

“Despite a red card shown to the Springboks just before half time, the match didn’t reveal a chasm between the teams, but it’s undeniable that in the end, it’s always the same team that wins,” Campistron wrote.

He praised South Africa’s “impressive ability to maintain constant pressure, a dominant scrum, and a knack for punishing the slightest mistake,” while lamenting that “the scoreline is harsh and doesn’t fully reflect the game – but the better team won.”

Both publications agreed on one thing: France must use this humbling defeat as motivation to bridge the gap before the next World Cup in Australia.

But in a short interview with SuperSport in the lead-up to the Test against France in Paris, Erasmus suggested that Pollard will get some game time, which has been hard to come by for the double World Cup winner.