France cling on for furious victory against South Africa after Dupont sizzles

Friday night at the Stade de France may just be the best show in sport. The French had laid on a full Cecil B DeMille production: fireworks, flame-throwers, floodlights, a multicoloured drone show involving a three-storey-tall cockerel that then reassembled itself into a beating red, blue and white heart before transforming into a vast tricolore along with 150 dancers carrying LEDs who performed to an ear-splitting choral rendition of Madonna’s Like a Prayer. Astonishingly enough, what came after actually lived up to it.

It had twists and turns, a scattering of superb performances from some of the finest players in the game, a fistful of red and yellow cards, fantastic freewheeling tries and several agonisingly intense stretches of scrummaging and defence, a clutch of hugely controversial decisions by both coaches and the referee, and one crucial missed conversion. At the end of it all, somehow, France had won by two points, 21-19, in their first victory against the Springboks at their national stadium in 21 years.