the essentials This Sunday’s quarter-final (9 p.m.) between France and South Africa is an opportunity for former French internationals to reflect on the defeat against the Springboks in the semi-final of the 1995 World Cup. The pain is always present.
On June 17, 1995, South Africa eliminated France in the semi-final of the World Cup with a score of 19-15, after a bitter fight and in difficult conditions. This Sunday, October 15, the emotion was still intact for Philippe Saint-André, captain at the time, who returned to this match in the Grandes Gueules du Sport on RMC.
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“The pressure that was put on the referee in the locker room…”
“It’s very difficult for me. For twenty-eight years, I never said that it was a scandal”, concedes the former coach of the XV of France who will recount, with great emotion, the before the match: “In preparation for the match, the referee brought the captains and coaches together and told us: ‘I think the match is not going to take place, it is not possible to play a rugby match because of the weather conditions.’ You should know that this is the third World Cup. The South African leaders read a small booklet and realize that if the match does not take place, it is France who is in the final thanks to fair play because the South Africans had taken a red card in phase of chickens. You can see the pressure that was put on the referee in the locker room…”
?? The emotion of Philippe Saint-André, tears in his eyes, a lump in his throat, as he revealed all the secrets of the controversial defeat of the XV of France against South Africa in 1995.
? “I broke down, I never said it. I waited 28 years. It feels good.” pic.twitter.com/9hzhGDXRHp
— Les Grandes Gueules du Sport – RMC (@GGsportRMC) October 15, 2023
Philippe Saint-André, who therefore never spoke of a “scandal”, emptied his bag on the airwaves of RMC and continued to expose the facts this time on the match itself. “The second thing is that we had four tries refused, he continued. Third thing, it was Ruben Kruger, their third line, who scored in the 26th minute. Before he died, he wrote a book in which he says that he has never flattened, he explains. Another thing, at the end of this match, we are five meters from their line, they collapse the scrum five times. Now , with video refereeing, it would be a penalty try.
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“The day before, half a dozen (French) players were at Immodium”
An injustice which had previously been shared by the French third row Abdelatif Benazzi. “It’s a feeling of injustice that predominates. I think that politics has taken precedence. This was confirmed during this official dinner after the final where he (the referee of the semi-final, editor’s note) was thanked with a gold watch,” he confided in an interview with AFP.
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Pierre Berbizier, who experienced what he calls a “scam” very badly, did not mince his words. “It’s huge that we are celebrating Invictus (the film which evokes the 1995 World Cup, editor’s note) in France when we know that it is probably one of the biggest scams in the history of sport”, had railed the coach at the time of the Blues. “The day before, half a dozen (French) players were at Immodium, he explains. Given that we had only lost by four points, the South Africans said to themselves: ‘for the final , it will be the entire New Zealand delegation’. The day before the final, they walked the entire route several times: toilets – rooms.”
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