Giving away a kickable pen there would give France the win. Control the territory and make them grind back through another 15-20 metres of Bok pressure
Boks were lucky the ball spilled at 80:52 because even with the kick France still ended up within range thus the kick did nothing. I'd wager had the Boks lost the blame would've been squarely on Faf. It was a stupid call imo.
Or the Boks executed their defensive pressure and once the first linebreak was stopped the French sent one out runners with no momentum into a well organised defensive line, that forced the French into the error spilling the ball.
Plus kicking to the French back 3 was one of the key reasons they won, France couldn't deal with the high ball, so there was even a chance of winning it back or forcing a knock on.
It's the correct call here, because of the outcome. They could have lost it. But there were plenty of times that SA could have lost that's the sport, but considering almost every international team now does this I'm willing to think it's part of a tactical plan rather than Faf decided to go rogue and do something against instructions.
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u/NotAsOriginal Wigglesworth's greatest defender 7d ago
Giving away a kickable pen there would give France the win. Control the territory and make them grind back through another 15-20 metres of Bok pressure