Francois Cros pinpoints where the Springboks had an edge over France at the World Cup: ‘We were equally as good, if not better’

François Cros has one season left at Stade Toulousain before he joins Lyon, a knee that will never be entirely right, and, on Friday 13 November at the Stade de France, the chance to face the side that ended France’s World Cup by a single point, in the same stadium, three years ago.

If you’ve watched Toulouse or France at any point in the last eight years, you’ll know the job Cros does, even if you’ve never once seen it on a highlights reel. He’s the angry ruck janitor, the man who tut-tuts at the untidiness of a breakdown and spends