Victor Matfield: I didn’t think the Springboks could surprise me anymore and then they produced a performance like that
Springboks celebrate after beating France, and former South Africa lock Victor Matfield.
Springboks’ former record cap holder Victor Matfield has claimed that their performance against France was even better than their historic triumph over the All Blacks.
South Africa inflicted New Zealand’s largest-ever defeat in September as they emerged 43-10 triumphant in Wellington.
That result proved crucial in the Rugby Championship as they retained their title, with the two countries finishing level on points.
It also took Rassie Erasmus’ men back to the top of the World Rugby rankings, a position they cemented following their stunning 32-17 success against France.
Impressive reaction to red card
What made it even more remarkable is that the Springboks had Lood de Jager red carded just before the interval, leaving them down to 14 men for the next 40 minutes and also 14-13 in arrears.
After preventing Les Bleus from building a big lead in the third quarter, the visitors dominated the latter stages and scored three tries to put away their opponents with relative ease in the end, leaving Matfield rather stunned.
“I thought it was just fantastic. I look at this team and think they can’t surprise me more, they can’t do better and then they give a performance like that,” the Boks legend said on the Rivals podcast.
“I really believe this was a better performance than the one we saw in Wellington against the All Blacks; how the guys came out in that second half.
“Malcolm Marx is so unbelievable at the moment and Jasper Wiese standing up. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu moving to 15 and Manie [Libbok] coming on.
“Yes, there were a few mistakes, probably not the best we’ve seen Sacha but, still, at the right time coming through and just dominating.
“I actually thought the second scrum where we got that big scrum I think 30 minutes into the game just changed the game. All of a sudden, South Africa knew that the French can’t stand up physically to them.
“Then they started controlling the collisions as well and it was game over. What a game by South Africa.”
High quality Test rugby
The clash in Paris was the highlight of a great weekend of Test rugby, with Italy shocking the Wallabies and Scotland running the All Blacks close.
Fiji also showed up well at Twickenham, giving England a fright, while Argentina produced some spellbinding rugby in their triumph over Wales.
Most of the matches were also of a high quality and All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan, who once again joined Matfield on the show, was impressed by what he saw.
“I agree with the quality. Last week I was pretty critical of the ref in Chicago, but I thought the refereeing over the weekend was really good from a spectacle point of view.
“The refs when they get it right shows our game is pretty damn good and the South African-French game lived up to what we thought it would be.
“The Springboks are number one at the moment. They’re like the All Blacks side from 2011 to 2015, they just keep getting better and better, so I can’t take anything away from them at the moment.”
