France captain Antoine Dupont will fill in at fly-half for Friday’s Nations Championship recreation in opposition to world champions South Africa in Paris.
Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, who was born and raised in London however moved to France as a 19-year-old after struggling to get knowledgeable contract in England, will win his fourth cap on the wing.
Grandidier-Nkanang centered on Sevens, profitable Olympic gold alongside Dupont in 2024 earlier than making a profitable change again to the 15-a-side recreation with Pau.
Dupont, a specialist scrum-half with solely a handful of appearances at 10, has been pressured into fly-half by the absence of Matthieu Jalibert, Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos and Antoine Hastoy.
It had been anticipated that Maxime Lucu, one other scrum-half, would play at fly-half.
Lucu got here off the bench to switch Ntamack, who suffered a shoulder harm 32 minutes into Saturday’s 54-17 victory over Fiji.
Lucu has the newer expertise as a beginning fly-half at membership degree, having performed at 10 for Bordeaux-Begles in opposition to Gloucester final month.
Nevertheless, France coach Fabian Galthie has opted for Dupont, who crammed in at fly-half for Toulouse throughout an harm disaster within the 2023-24 season.
Galthie has chosen hooker Julien Marchand and quantity eight Gregory Alldritt, who was ignored of this yr’s Six Nations, to counter the Springboks’ ahead energy.
“I do not even know if Dupont’s team-mates know precisely what he will do subsequent, so he is simply actually taking part in on intuition, which is hard to deal with,” South Africa coach Erasmus mentioned this week.
He has made just one change to the aspect that thrashed Italy 66-7 on Saturday, with Wilco Louw changing former Tub prop Thomas du Toit.
South Africa have gained 9 of their previous 10 Assessments in opposition to France, together with a 14-man victory final autumn and a one-point quarter-final victory on the 2023 World Cup.
France: Attissogbe; Grandidier-Nkanang, Gourgues, Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey; Dupont, Lucu; Falatea, Marchand, Gros, Verhaeghe, Guillard, Cros, Woki, Alldritt.
Replacements: Mauvaka, Neti, Montagne, Ollivon, Staniforth, Capilla, Desperes, Gailleton.
South Africa: Willemse; Arendse, Kriel, de Allende, Hooker; Feinberg-Mngomezulu, van den Berg; Nche, Marx, Louw, de Jager, Nortje, PS du Toit, Kolisi, Wiese.
Replacements: Wessels, Steenekamp, T du Toit, Mostert, Hanekom, de Villiers, Reinach, Libbok.
