Les Blues Bite - France Shock The Boks, Rugby League Madness & Dog Shot of The Year

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This is The Big Jim Show.

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So the French finally do it. They went at home in Paris, 21 points to 19 against the back-to-back world champions, South Africa, and what a match it was. French flair versus the South African power, two completely different styles going at it, massive physicality, loads of talking points, controversial cards, and a game decided by the smallest of margins. What a cracker. Before we get started, if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to the show. I appreciate every one of you who already have subscribed, anyone who's interacted, anyone who watches the show. I appreciate all of you. But if you haven't, please subscribe to the channel, whether you're watching on YouTube or you're listening or watching as a podcast. It helps me grow the show. And it's what we do. It's what we're doing. We're creating content for you, the audience, the fans. Thank you very much. What an incredible build-up to the match. Let's start with that. The emotion in Paris. No better place to play on a Friday. Neat in Paris. Played there a few times in the evening as well. And it's a wonderful city and a country to play rugby in. And the build-up was spectacular, albeit late. A bit tired now, according to podcasts. But that's what we're here for. That's what we're here to do.

And a few mind games, of course, it's Rassi Erasmus. The front row change before kickoff, which I'm hearing could result in a penalty fine or something from World Rugby. Who knows what they're going to do? They'll have a hundred people on the panel trying to make a decision, and no one will make a decision. So nothing might happen off the back of it. But the French as well, disruption at Hooker. My vaca ended up starting, world-class player. And Julian Marchand was injured in the warm-up. Didn't have a massive effect or did it? I don't know how much of a difference Marchand would have helped in the scrum, but it didn't matter. It was a frantic start for both teams in the game. And the big talking point was, how would Anton DuPont do playing fly half for France with Maxime Lucou at nine? As it transpired, as we kind of thought it might, Anton DuPont didn't play ten. He wore ten, but he played scrum half, and he was brilliant. And I put a post out before the game, not to rage bait my South African audience and brothers and sisters. I put it out there because I feel Anton DuPont is the best rugby player in the world. If you were to look at World Cups, then you could say that he isn't, or if you say that he hasn't traveled to the Southern Hemisphere, you could also say that he isn't. But as a rugby player and his influence on the game, Anton DuPont is the best rugby player in the world. And it isn't just me saying that I imagine people that are more experts on the game would agree. If you got man of the match, that's subjective, and that kind of doesn't matter. But it was the Anton DuPont show. He drove the narrative of the game. He was taking short sides, his decision making, his 50-22. His kick pass for the first try for Aaron Grandinier, who I thought was brilliant apart from his Simbenin. Excellent player, really good under the high ball, Grandinier. Changed to a few mates who know of him and said he's world class for Po and adds a different perspective. And he did, he added a different layer in the match for France with their contestable kicks, which we know South Africa have been and probably still are the best team in the world. But, yeah, de Pont making incredible decisions at the right time, around the breakdown, spot in space. And just while we're on Anton de Pont, this won't be the end of the Anton de Pont discussion, but the second try as well, Florian Vahague, the second row, unbelievable take under the high ball, which is a super skill. And I've never seen him do that before. You never find a second row doing that. It's clearly something they've worked on as a team, right? Because they looked completely different in their set up. I know they've got a few injuries into the game. So their arm was forced, especially around the back three. Rassi mentioned he didn't know many of the back three players. Obviously Theo Atisogbe, he should know. He said he didn't know the 15, but he should know the 15 He's brilliant for Poe as well. But with Louis-Biore, and I mentioned as well, the tri-scorer, Grandidier, they had a different influence to how they went around the kicking game. But back to the high ball take from Vahage. He was up against Sacha Feinberg and Gumazula, who's very good under the high ball. But what followed that was the Anton de Pont brilliance with a 50-22 French attacking line out, driving line out, and I thought the South Africans were very physical, of course, in that area of the game, and made France work, actually made them peel out off the back of the driving line out. But a freakish bit of play, I exed it, tweeted it, wrote a comment about it, because the ball came off the heads of Gorgias, and Atasogbe scored the try. And we can laugh about it, and it is a try in the rules and the laws of the game, but it's a fucking ridiculous one at it. And we saw Joe Marla happened in the World Cup, was it against Japan or Argentina? I can't remember, but it happened in the World Cup for England when Joe Marla did it. People in the stadium are laughing, and they need to change the rule or the law or the interpretation of that, because it's bloody ridiculous. But anyway, but if you look at the first two tries for France and how we see South Africa play and New Zealand, people could say that France and New Zealand are very similar, they're not. France's instinct, it's jouet, to use the buzzword play, if you didn't know what jouet means.