France 7 South Africa 12

South Africa got their World Rugby Classic campaign off to a winning start with a hard-fought win against France at the National Sports Centre yesterday.

In an uncompromising encounter, the defending champions were made to scrap for everything and but for a bit of luck might have been dumped out of the contest on the first day.

True to form the French provided some moments of genuine quality, mixed with plenty of needle. Not known as the shy-retiring types, the Springboks responded in kind and the result was a game that would have graced the final.

Former Springbok captain Bobby Skinstad nearly missed the encounter, however, landing on the Island just an hour before the game was due to start.

"I only landed at 2.45 p.m. I came straight here from Cape Town via Dhakar and Atlanta and then to Bermuda and I played like that as well. I'm ready for a beer and to put my feet up," he said.

It was a tough introduction to the tournament for Skinstad who entered a feisty game mid-way through a first half which was punctuated with the odd punch-up and finished with South Africa's Johannes Buekes and France's Thibault Algret being sin-binned.

"There are quality players here and we enjoyed it. You expect the game to be tough and the Frenchies are hard old buggers and it's credit to all their rugby I suppose," said Skinstad.

"South Africans play rugby because we don't like to be mugged, and that was right up our alley. I think sometimes in your first game it's good to get a nice little scare against a good side which is what they are."

And a different bounce here, or call there and it might have been the French who would be facing Australia on Wednesday evening.

"They were held up once, but you get those games, and the bounce went for us and we were lucky on a couple of occasions," said Skinstad. "But also they were lucky on one or two calls so, I think it evens itself up.

"It was one of those games that I would have been happy to play in anytime, not just in a final."

Had the French taken their chances then it might well have been a different story, but while they played with their usual panache they also exhibited their usual flaws.

In the early stages of the game, Thomas Lombard blew a try-scoring opportunity with the try at his mercy after he ignored an overlap and was held up over the line, and the French willingness to throw the ball around also cost them on several occasions.

Their indiscipline at the breakdown, the source of so much of the first half's fractiousness cost them when a turnover sent Breyton Pulse charging down the wing to convert his own chip and chase.

South Africa failed with the conversion and a move of true quality saw France move ahead. Some sublime passing stretched the Springboks to breaking point and Remi Louis was left with a clear run underneath the posts.

Patrick Ladouce's conversion put the French 7-5 ahead, not that they stayed ahead for long, with Robbie Fleck, the South African centre breaking around from the side of a ruck and going in under the posts.

Breyton Pulse converted to put South Africa 12-7 in front and that was the end of the scoring.

South Africa were as stubborn in defence as countless Springbok teams that have gone before them, and gave France nothing in an attritional second half that saw Les Blues bash away against the Springboks only to be hurled back time and again.

On the one occasion that they did get through, Hervet Louvet got his hands on a grubber kick from Patrick Tabacco, only for referee Nigel Whitehouse to decide that South African Jacques Jonker who appeared to ground the ball a split second later, had in fact got there first.