France defeat South Africa 36 - 26 in rugby

June 25, 2006

France defeated South Africa in Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday in a rugby union test match. France outscored South Africa, with four tries to South Africa's one, with a lot of South Africa's points coming from penalty goals. The French win put an end to an undefeated-at-home streak that the Springboks had been building, which was at 13 games before the loss to France. The win over South Africa is a good sign for France, who are also the current Six Nations champions, and the host of next year's 2007 Rugby World Cup.

France opened the scoring after four minutes when winger Cédric Heymans gathered a kick to run in the first try of the match. Dimitri Yachvili was unsuccessful with the conversion, so the score was five points to nil. A few minutes later, the Springboks are awarded a penalty, and Percy Montgomery successfully kicks a penalty goal to take the score to five to three. France are awarded a penalty at around the 10 minute mark, and Yachvili successfully kicks a penalty goal to extend the French lead to eight points to three. France post more points with a drop goal from Florian Fritz, furthering their lead over the Springboks to 11 points to three. South Africa catch up in the subsequent five minutes, with Montgomery kicking another two penalty goals. In the 28th minute, South Africa takes the lead with another successful penalty goal by Montgomery. Subsequent penalty goals are missed by both nations before they go into half-time.

South Africa score their first try of the match through Brent Russell. Montgomery is unsuccessful with the conversion attempt, with the ball hitting the upright. France hit back two minutes later with a try of their own through Vincent Clerc and Yachvili is successful with the conversion. Five minutes later, France are able to take the lead again, with Damien Traille scoring under the posts, and Yachvilli subsequently adding the conversion. With around 15 minutes remaining in the match, Traille kicks France's second drop-goal to extend their lead to 28 to 23. A penalty goal is kicked by Montgomery for South Africa, narrowing the score to 28 to 26, however, Clerc scores his second try of the match for France in the last ten minutes to secure the win. The final score of the game is 36 to 26.