Green and goals: Scott Barrett of New Zealand in possession of the ball ahead of Pieter-Steph du Toit and Faf de Klerk. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
The first phase of the World Cup is a little like matric exams — quickly forgotten but important if you want to go to university.
Staying with this logic, eight teams in the tournament have progressed to “higher education” — this weekend’s quarter-finals — with 12 teams dropping by the wayside because they didn’t qualify for the knockouts.
For each of these 12 teams, failure has slightly different shading. Australia, Italy and Scotland, for instance, had disappointing tournaments, and have left France under dark clouds.
Portugal, however, did not. On Sunday, they beat quarter-finalists Fiji 24-23, a result that catapulted them up the world rankings to 13th, above more fashionable teams such as Georgia, Tonga and Samoa. “Os Lobos” went home, too, but with heads held high.
A side of young hopefuls, journeymen and players not quite good enough to get into the French team, no-one exemplifies Portuguese spunk more than hooker Mike Tadjer, who broke down in tears after the Fiji win.
The son of a Portuguese father and a Syrian mother, Tadjer — or, to give his full name, Mike Tadjer Barbosa — grew up in France. At 34, he’s played at pretty much every French club going, and is sort of a professional’s professional. When he bursts into tears, it means the spirit of the game is alive and well.
Tadjer is a beefy guy, like an espetada with legs, and he was everywhere against Fiji. At one point, he even popped up on the wing to receive a Fiji kick; he caught the ball, gathered himself, and then hoofed it into touch, not with the practised accomplishment of a fullback or fly-half, but with the slightly over-hasty panic of a tight forward.
Afterwards, his chest puffed out with pride. Rosiness blossomed in his cheeks. These are rugby’s human moments and the Toulouse crowd loved him for it. Later, he announced his retirement, telling his football-mad countrymen: “Rugby now exists [here in Portugal].”
Just north of Toulouse, nestled on the River Lot and surrounded by rolling countryside, is the little town of Cahors. It is famous for the medieval bridge over the river (with three beautiful towers on it) but it is also famous for being the birthplace of Fabien Galthié, the French coach.
He of the funky thick-rimmed spectacles, Galthié is a legend in France, partly because he went to four consecutive World Cups as a player. His first World Cup was in South Africa in 1995, where France lost — unluckily — to South Africa in the semi-final in a mud bath at King’s Park.
He enjoyed his visit to the country so much that, afterwards, he played club rugby for False Bay and provincial rugby for Western Province.
The 1999 edition of the tournament was in England and France drew the All Blacks in the semi-final.
France coach Fabien Galthié. The Boks and France are set to face off in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals on Sunday. (World Rugby via Getty Images)
Played at Twickenham, the “Blackness” led 17-10 at half-time. When Jonah Lomu scored his second try of the match early in the second half to make it 24-10 to New Zealand, the result looked like a foregone conclusion, but this was to discount the role of French fly-half Christophe Lamaison, who chipped away at the All Black lead with a steady stream of drop-kicks and penalties.
At 24-22, and the match hanging in the balance, who should step forward but Galthié. Noticing that there was space on the All Black blindside after collecting the ball at the back of a French ruck, Galthié cleverly chipped the ball into no-man’s land with a delicate left-footed kick.
In baggy shorts, which suggested that he had to borrow a pair from one of his forwards because he left his at home, winger Christophe Dominici hared after it, getting there before the New Zealand cover defence. France took the lead for the first time in the match as a result of Dominici’s try and ran out 43-31 winners.
In the final, France were overpowered by the phenomenal Australian side of the era, Australia having beaten Nick Mallett’s Springboks in the other semi-final.
In the Springbok side that day in 1999 was Rassie Erasmus, which means that Galthié and Erasmus go back a long, long way. Both will have prepared assiduously for their Sunday night quarter-final and both will be looking forward to it tremendously.
Unlike Erasmus, Galthié has never won a World Cup. He was appointed France coach in 2020, so missed the 2019 edition of the tournament. In it, France weren’t very good, losing to England in the pool stage, before losing by a point to Wales in their quarter-final.
We are not being hyperbolic to suggest the quarter-final against the Springboks is the most important match of Galthié’s coaching career.
Director of rugby Erasmus and coach Jacques Nienaber will have noticed that, at times, France’s line-out was a tad wonky in their final Pool A group game against Italy.
They will also have noticed that coach Kieran Crowley bemoaned his team’s lack of forward power after Italy’s disappointing campaign, intimating that it is there, in the dark netherworld of the scrums and rucks, that World Cups are won and lost.
That’s music to the Boks’ cauliflower ears. Springboks don’t lack grunt and set-piece muscle. And they don’t lack the kind of aggressive defence — through players like Pieter-Steph du Toit and tiny Faf de Klerk, the so-called radioactive poodle — that had a side as good as Ireland at sixes and sevens during the Boks’ 13-8 loss earlier in the tournament.
For his part Galthié and his coaching staff will have noted the Boks’ worrying propensity to squander points from penalties and conversions. They will also have noticed that when South Africa went behind against Ireland, they lost their shape as they chased the game.
Through Thomas Ramos, the Foot of God, France have the uncanny knack of keeping the scoreboard ticking over and it’s conceivable that South Africa could find themselves behind in the quarter-final more than once.
France are an unusually high-scoring side, and will have a better chance of being so if their talismanic captain, Antoine Dupont, is cleared to play after his injury against Namibia.
The most appetising of the quarter-finals is the Ireland vs All Blacks game but the most difficult to call is Wales vs Argentina.
First things first. Ireland have been building for this one since the day in the 2019 Rugby World Cup when they lost 19-12 to Japan in Fukuroi. It will be fly-half Johnny Sexton’s last World Cup and there’s almost a sense of manifest destiny to the way Ireland have approached things.
This said, the All Blacks were scalded by their opening loss to France. Have they left that defeat behind or is it sitting in the back of their heads like the vague remnants of a bad dream? We shall see.
Which brings us to the first quarter-final of the weekend — Argentina vs Wales on Saturday evening.
Argentina are the most improved side in world rugby since they were joined by Aussie coach Michael Cheika last year, although their tournament form has been patchy.
Wales, by contrast, have been the most vrot — except for their run at the World Cup, that is, which has brought them victories over Australia, Portugal, Fiji and Georgia.
It’s a clash of opposites, therefore, and all the more tasty for it.
Luke Alfred is a seasoned South African sports journalist.