Marx weighs in on 'unpredictable' France beyond set-piece battle
INTERVIEW: Current World Rugby Player of the Year Malcolm Marx dived into what the Boks expect from Les Bleus in their Nations Championship encounter at Stade de France on Friday.
Unsurprisingly, the focus when it comes to a match between these two proud nations is the set-piece battle.
*Also read: Springboks v France: The emotion, hostility and drama of the 2025 Test
The Boks had the better of France up front in recent years, but there’s been no shortage of entertainment and drama, going back to Bongi Mbonambi’s maul try to seal the deal in 2018, the dramatic end to the 2023 World Cup quarterfinal and, more recently, the Boks’ comeback at the same stadium during the Nations Series last year.
And that unpredictability, along with the physical brutality up front France pose, is something Marx and the Boks are well aware of.
“I think there’s some form of unpredictability. If you take how the different French Top 14 sides play, it’s all different styles,” Marx said.
“But most of those sides have dominant forward packs, we’re preparing according to the pictures we’ve seen, and we’ve looked at our performance against Italy and identified areas where we can improve to get better.
“We can’t say with 100 percent certainty which style of play France will dish up on the day; they have the French flair and generally play good rugby.
“So we’re trying to prepare ourselves accordingly, and we’ll see what happens in the game.”
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Going back to the forward battle, Marx touched on Les Bleus’ scrum and the Boks’ preparation for it.
“It’s been a bit of a different one, having played against Italy this past Saturday with a short turnaround this week to face France on Friday,” The Bok hooker told Rugby365 from the team’s hotel in Paris.
“Italy had a good scrum, and we know how good France are at scrummaging and how dominant they are in general at set-piece.
“We’ve seen it throughout this year’s Six Nations and what they’ve done during the first block of the Nations Championship [in July].
“We are aware of the threats they pose; they are a great side. It’s not just their set-piece that’s really good; they’re good in open play as well.
“Those are things we have to look after and look out for, but we’re trying to prepare ourselves as best as possible according to the pictures that we’ve seen.”
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Marx added that the scrum won’t be the only battle South Africa will have to look out for.
“The breakdown is another challenge; there will be plenty of challenges for us this weekend, but we are looking forward to them,” Marx told Rugby365.
“Two really good sides are going up against each other, and we are aware of the threats they bring, and their breakdown is extremely accurate.
“Getting hands on the ball at times is extremely hard, and we’ve been working really hard to prepare ourselves for all those scenarios.”
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