French prop Baille primed for Springboks: 'Big players turn up in big moments'

Over the years France have produced a host of battle-hardened props who have been able to put their hand up to be the best in world rugby.

Current loosehead Cyril Baille is among them alongside the likes of Christian Califano, Nicolas Mas or Pascal Ondarts and on Sunday the 30-year-old will face one of the biggest challenges of his career.

At the Stade de France, the front-rower is set to play a big part for the hosts in their Rugby World Cup quarter-final with South Africa but it all seemed very unlikely two months ago.

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In August's warm-up win over Scotland, Baille suffered a calf injury putting his tournament in doubt.

Despite the fitness issues he returned in time for France's two final group games, convincing wins over Namibia and Italy.

"He had a unique injury and he managed to return," France's scrum coach William Servat told reporters on Thursday.

"He's had a few injuries during his career and every time he has managed to return even stronger," the former hooker added.

Baille, who weighs a hefty 118kg, made his Test debut in 2016 after coming through Toulouse's academy.

However, he was made to wait until Fabien Galthie took over as head coach four years ago to make the No 1 shirt his own.

'Thousand percent'

He grew up in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, like team-mates including captain Antoine Dupont and loose forward Anthony Jelonch.

Despite Baille's abrasive demeanour on the field and his ability to win penalties against the world's leading props at scrum-time, his character off the field is very different.

"Sometimes, I experienced it as a player, people can confuse kindness and weakness," Servat said.

"Cyril he's an excessively