THE FINAL WHISTLE
MARK KEOHANE: Springbok victory in Paris just plastering over the cracks
Take the win SA, but temper the euphoria. The Springboks eased the pain of their horror date against Ireland in Dublin with a one-point victory against a French team that must rank as one of the weakest in the professional era. And there have been some pretty average French teams since 1996. France, somehow, manage to still command respect among rugby supporters the world over because of two World Cup play-off wins against New Zealand in 1999 and 2007. The French have a global reputation of being capable of beating any team on any given day, but isn’t that cliché true of any team, in any sport? There is no substance to the modern day French association of a team capable of the remarkable and unpredictable. The French for so long have been everything but unpredictable and unremarkable. The All Blacks have beaten them 19 out of 20 times and lost just 12 from 59 historically. They’ve also beaten them in five of the seven World Cup contests, including beating France in the 1987 and 2011...
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