Match Centre: France 30-26 South Africa

France 30-26 South Africa, Stade de France

Pieter-Steph du Toit and Antonie Dupont both were sent-off as France managed to edge out South Africa 30-26 in their clash in Paris on Saturday.

Du Toit was sent off in the 12th minute of the game for striking the head of Jonathan Danty, who had to leave the field while Dupont took on Cheslin Kolbe with the Springboks wing landing on his head.

The opening points came in the third minute as de Klerk infringed with an offside and Thomas Ramos kicked a penalty goal to make it 3-0 and shortly the Boks were down to 14 players with du Toit sent off by referee Wayne Barnes.

Just as Julien Marchand won a penalty for France, Ramos kicked his second three-pointer in the 18th minute to extend their lead to 6-0 before Cyril Baille dived from close range for the opening try in the 22nd minute. Ramos kicked the conversion as they scored 13 unanswered points.

The Boks opened their account eventually in the 26th minute through a long-range kick from Kolbe before Siya Kolisi touched down at the back of a powerful line out drive. Kolbe also kicked the conversion to make it 13-10.

With the break approaching, Ramos with his third penalty kick extended the home side's lead to six points at the end of the opening half.

The Boks showed a lot of resilience despite being a player down as Kolbe kicked a three-pointer but was cancelled out by another three-pointer from Ramos before the former had to leave the field with a red card leaving both the teams with 14 players apiece.

The Springboks took the lead for the first time when Kurt-Lee Arendse crossed the whitewash for a converted try before Ramos made it a one-point game with his fifth three-pointer in the 60th minute.

With De Klerk replaced, a penalty kick from Damian Willemse made it 22-26 but the visitors lost another player in the final 10 minutes with Deon Fourie sin-binned for a cynical maul indiscretion. With the numerical advantage on their side, Falatea crossed the whitewash to take the Les Blues into the lead.

Ramos missed out on the conversion but made amends with a penalty in the 78th minute as France completed a four point victory.

"We're four points behind France, the second best team in the world, and three behind Ireland who are the best," said Jacques Nienaber.

"France are northern-hemisphere champions - and that's where we are. We'll work extremely hard as we have Ireland in our pool and there's a possibility of France in the quarter-finals.

"Twelve wins on the trot. There's not a team in world rugby that is on that streak. They should, with Ireland, be close to favourites. There's a lot of competition and no big gaps between the top 10 teams and if you get stuff wrong you can lose to any of them."