Dupont at scrum-half, Lucu at fly-half: the numbers

Dupont made 62 passes and kicked 21 times, while Lucu made only 14 passes and took the goal-kicking duties.

A secret that did not last

When the team was announced, Fabien Galthié refused to say who would play where: “I’m not going to get into that. I’ll keep a bit of a trade secret.” In the warm-up, Antoine Dupont was working only at scrum-half. In the match, the number 10 did play scrum-half and the number 9, Maxime Lucu, fly-half.

Dupont with a scrum-half’s workload

The official match statistics show it. Dupont made 62 passes and took 85 ball collections, a scrum-half’s workload: six days earlier against Fiji, wearing 9, he made 77 passes and 88 collections. Lucu made only 14 passes and took 25 collections. Starting at scrum-half in July, he had made between 52 and 80 passes a match.

543 metres with the boot

Dupont also took charge of the kicking game: 21 kicks for 543 metres, out of France’s 30 kicks and 823 metres. Against Fiji he kicked only 10 times, for 140 metres. It was his low kick that sent Louis Bielle-Biarrey over for a try.

Opposite him, South Africa fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu made 14 passes and kicked 7 times, for 171 metres.

Lucu, goal-kicker and stand-in fly-half

Lucu converted all three French tries but missed a penalty and a drop goal. He also found touch four times from penalties. Defending in the fly-half channel, he was sin-binned in the 38th minute for a high tackle on Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

France won 21-19, their first win over South Africa since November 2022.