Lièvremont blames ‘catastrophic start’

FRANCE coach Marc Lièvremont blamed his team’s horrific opening 20 minutes for their 42-17 loss to South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday.

Lièvremont was almost at a loss for words to describe his team’s display.

France were 17-0 down after just 12 minutes and their coach admitted the game was lost from there.

“The match was over after 15 minutes,” said Lièvremont.

“After a catastrophic start to the match and it was difficult to come back from that position. The defeat is hard for us to accept, but we knew it was going to be intense.

“It wasn’t all negative, there were some positive points but we know how solid the South Africans are. It was easy for them to feed off each one of our mistakes.”

Springbok coach Peter de Villiers said he now has a squad strong enough to be able to replace any starting player with full confidence.

“I can honestly say that for the first time in two years I don’t have any doubts about a player’s ability to come up to scratch when he comes off the substitutes’ bench,” said De Villiers.

SOUTH AFRICA: Z Kirchner; G Aplon, J Fourie, W Olivier, B Habana; M Steyn, R Januarie; G Steenkamp, J Smit (capt), B Botha, D Rossouw, V Matfield, S Burger, F Louw, P Spies.

Replacements: J de Villiers for Kirchner (61), J de Jongh for Olivier (61), R Pienaar for Steyn (66), C Ralepelle for Smit (30), J du Plessis for B Botha (57), F van der Merwe for Rossouw (61), D Potgieter for Burger (61).

FRANCE: C Poitrenaud; V Clerc, D Marty, M Mermoz, A Rougerie; F Trinh-Duc, M Parra; T Domingo, D Szarzewski, N Mas, L Nallet, R Millo-Chluski, T Dusautoir (capt), W Lauret, J Bonnaire.

Replacements: D Skrela for Poitrenaud (71), M Andreu for Marty (64), D Yachvili for Parra (67), JB Poux for Domingo (41), G Guirado for Szarzewski (64).

Referee: B Lawrence (New Zealand).