Preview: South Africa v France

World and Tri-Nations champions South Africa host Grand Slam winners France in Cape Town on Saturday in a rematch of their November clash.

It's being billed at the next episode in the "battle of the hemispheres" saga and rightly so. France are Europe's best team at the moment, by quite some way, while South Africa are riding the crest of a success wave after their recent domination in the Super 14.

A common question amongst the travelling French journalists this week has been if this game is important to the South African fans given the soccer World Cup starting a day before.

The answer lies in the question as the fact that this Test has been able to happen - despite FIFA regulations banning major events taking place in host cities during the round-ball tournament - is an indication of the importance the Springbok team has not only to their fans, but the national psyche in general.

The French can expect a fair bit more support than usual since their soccer team plays the night before. It won't be the first time French football and rugby teams have played in a foreign city on the same weekend. On 25 June 1977 at the Ferrocarril Oeste stadium in Buenos Aires les Bleus beat the Pumas 26-3 and the following day across the city at Camilo Cichero Stadium the respective football teams played out a nil-nil draw (thanks to Stuart Farmer for the info).

Read more: http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,2...200881,00.html