France ran in eight tries to beat Fiji 54-17 in Lyon, with Antoine Dupont exquisite at the base and Geoffrey Doumayrou’s new defence impressive, but the loss of key man Romain Ntamack leaves Fabien Galthié with a fly-half crisis of endemic proportions six days before the Springboks rumble into Paris.

Here’s our five takeaways from the game.

The top line

Nobody does a rugby opening ceremony quite like France, and with a stunning new Adidas kit, a sold-out Groupama Stadium and Dupont and Ntamack together in la charnière for the first time since March 2025, this had all the expectation and makings of a special night. Galthié had promised something spectacular, and for long stretches we got it: eight tries, a player of the match performance from Dupont that was as good as anything we’ve seen from him in a blue shirt in years, and an attacking sequence early in the second half, ignited by the Toulouse nine, that was like somebody flicking a light switch on. But it was also a match and a French side that, at times, delivered a lot less than it promised.

It took the hosts 14 minutes to score, after a start that saw Ntamack’s kick-off go straight into touch, Théo Attissogbé fumble the first contestable and the first French lineout throw go in crooked, and even with the game won they kept shooting themselves in the foot at the set-piece, dropping four driving mauls in the second half and effectively crippling the same weapon that had earned them a penalty try in the first. Then there’s the injury list, which now includes Ntamack, off after 33 minutes with a suspected left shoulder subluxation. It was, in the final analysis, l’œuf du curé: very good in parts, bad in others, and the parts that weren’t will worry Galthié far more than the scoreline suggests.

Fiji, for their part, looked transformed in structure and organisation since the summer’s 73-8 humbling at the hands of England. Jake White said before kick-off that he wanted defence, discipline and territory from his side, and he got one of the three; the other two will need work before Dublin.

Dupont, Moefana and the men who shone

Dupont was exquisite tonight. With Ntamack gone and Maxime Lucu, a scrum-half by trade, moving to 10, France needed someone to run the game, and Dupont simply took it on himself, roaming across the field looking for space, throwing 75 passes, beating five defenders and having a hand in try after try: the cross-kick that started Jean-Baptiste Gros’s opener, the opening that sent Sipili Falatea back against the grain, a long left-handed pass to put Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang away, a lightning break and flip pass behind him for Yoram Moefana that covered 60 metres in a flash, and finally a try of his own off the back of a driving maul with two minutes left. He also won the ball back on the touchline for Attissogbé’s try. 18 months ago he was recovering from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, but tonight he looked like a man who’d never been away.

Outside Dupont, Moefana was something else, direct and powerful on both sides of the ball with 14 carries for 91 metres and six defenders beaten, whilst Grandidier-Nkanang is seriously quick and made 123 metres, the most on the pitch, with Attissogbé close behind on 112. Most importantly for France, their starting front-row was very, very good indeed. Gros made ten tackles without a miss, scored a try and smashed Fiji for a scrum penalty early in the second half, and Falatea is as good with ball in hand as any tighthead in the game, although his scrummaging only just held on, and next weekend he’ll have a much sterner task. Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s work rate was phenomenal despite Fiji shutting him down for an hour, and when he finally broke them open he set up Attissogbé’s try; he also spent time at first receiver for set-piece attack, as he does for UBB when Lucu plays at 10.

A pack that needed Ollivon

François Cros made 14 tackles and was generally outstanding, but for one lapse, when Vinaya Habosi stepped him magnificently and left Cros grasping at thin air with nobody covering the backfield; miss one like that against South Africa and you are toast. Yet France’s back-row looked a tad unbalanced. Cros is a collision forward who does his best work alongside the ball-carrier rather than over the ball himself, and at eight he perhaps looked a little constrained; with Cameron Woki and Paul Boudehent on the flanks, France had no real jackal threat, nobody whose first instinct is to get his hands on the ball at the tackle, and as a result Fiji counter-rucked superbly, retaining 82 of their 83 rucks and winning seven turnovers to France’s three, with Kitione Salawa claiming his second straight after the break.

The veteran Charles Ollivon came on for Florian Verhaeghe on 57 minutes to the biggest cheer of the night, and it’s pretty much a rugby fact that he is to Galthie’s France what Jamie Tartt is to Ted Lasso’s AFC Richmond,; a goal-hanging pest of the highest order. Within a minute he’d ripped the ball from a Fijian on the floor for Kalvin Gourgues’s try; by the 72nd he’d scored one himself, an absolute poacher’s finish from close range for his 20th Test try, a record for a French forward, and to cap his night he caught the lineout that launched Dupont’s final score.

Jake White’s Fiji

White will be happy with Fiji in some respects. Their press and shape were miles better than in July, their counter-rucking was outstanding, with Tevita Ikanivere leading from the front with 17 tackles, the most on the pitch, and Nathan Hughes, who beat seven defenders, produced his trademark pick-and-go straight through a ruck. Crucially, Fiji elected to keep the ball on the park; with France’s maul already producing a penalty try and a yellow card for Mesake Vocevoce, every kick to touch was an invitation to drive, so Fiji kicked long and infield instead, out-kicking France by 685 metres to 501 and holding them to 53-47 in territory.

The downside is that they barely attacked until the final quarter, carrying just 47 times all night, and the other two of White’s targets fell well short. Both of France’s first-half tries from close range came from Fijian penalties, and 29 missed tackles at 69 per cent is far too many against anyone, let alone Ireland next week. The late flourish was encouraging, with Habosi and Selestino Ravutaumada, after lovely interplay with Frank Lomani, matching France try for try over the last quarter of an hour, and it’s a sign of what this group can achieve once the structure White is building is in place. There’s a lesson in the numbers too: Fiji won the kicking metres, the ruck count and the turnover battle yet still lost by 37, which tells you how ruthlessly France turned possession into points in the red zone when they bothered to be accurate.

One odd call deserves explaining, because it decided a try outcome and it left Fiji felt pretty aggrieved. A player can claim a mark only in his own 22, catching the ball cleanly direct from an opponent’s kick and calling “mark” as he does so, but the catch has to be completed, with the ball fully under control. When Dupont’s long pass sent Grandidier-Nkanang away and he kicked ahead, Vilimoni Botitu took the ball and called for the mark, but it came out as he hit the ground. A ball that comes loose on contact with the ground was never controlled, and no control means no mark, so the ball was live and Grandidier-Nkanang, following up his own kick, picked up and scored. Karl Dickson saw it, explained it clearly and got it absolutely spot on.

Looking ahead

France have had a greater turnover at fly-half this year than most modern governments manage in 10, and the injury list is now endemic. With Ntamack off, Matthieu Jalibert and Thomas Ramos already out and Antoine Hastoy injuring his ankle before the camp began, Galthié simply doesn’t have a specialist 10 of real calibre to call on, and it’s almost certain Maxime Lucu and Dupont will form la charnière against South Africa, with the uncapped Louis Le Brun, the only other option at 10 left in the squad. Lucu does bring a genuinely deep kicking game, but as a nine he’s lateral and doesn’t drive a side forward, and against the Springboks’ line speed that will be a real concern. It’s ironic that the old Hospital-Dieu on the banks of the Rhône is now a beautiful hotel, because on tonight’s evidence Lyon might have needed to reopen it had France picked up any more injuries.

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Galthié also needs his maul back, because four dropped drives in a half is one thing against Fiji, but against the Springboks it would be fatal. He needs to rebalance that back-row too; whilst Cros was good, Woki had his moments and Boudehent was very physical, Ollivon certainly made the case for his inclusion in his 23 minutes on the pitch, and it might need a rethink of the back five if France are to beat South Africa.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Paris, the Springbok squad will be quietly munching biltong, drinking Klippies, FaceTiming their kids, sending each other Instagram messages and half-watching the video of this match, and take it from us, they’ll be worried about absolutely nothing whatsoever.