The northern and southern hemisphere Nations Championship leaders, France and South Africa, will face off on Friday at the Stade de France in a fixture that is likely to have seismic implications.
Both Les Bleus and the Springboks have only narrow leads atop their divisions. France are two points ahead of England and Ireland, while the Boks lead the All Blacks only on points difference.
This is the second-last regular season game for both teams, and only the table-toppers can qualify for the final on Nov. 29 at Twickenham.
The Springboks maintained their perfect record in terms of wins and bonus points as they beat Italy 66-7 to begin the away leg of the tournament. France kicked off their home leg with a 54-17 win over Fiji.
The Boks will visit Ireland in their last regular season game on Nov. 21, while France will host Argentina the same day.
France's only defeat so far in the Nations Championship was a 34-32 loss to New Zealand away when Fabien Galthie did not have all of his best players available. If France beat the Springboks at home, that result could prove decisive in the broader scheme.
Key details
Date: Friday, Nov. 13 at 10:10 p.m. CAT (9:10 p.m. local time in France - CET, 8:10 p.m. GMT, 9:10 a.m. on Saturday Nov. 14 NZDT)
Venue: Stade de France, Saint-Denis
How to watch: For South African viewers, the match will be available on SuperSport's DSTV channels 201 and 211.
The Nations Championship's official broadcasters also include ITV, S4C and Virgin Media (UK and Ireland, TF1 (France), Sky Italia (Italy), Nine (Australia), Sky New Zealand, WOWOW in Japan and ESPN in Argentina.
Team news
Rassie Erasmus generally opted for continuity after the Italy win, with Wilco Louw the only new face in his starting XV and Cobus Reinach called up to the replacements bench in place of Grant Williams in the other change to the matchday 23 announced on Monday.
Erasmus has so far resisted the temptation to call upon Eben Etzebeth, who joined the touring squad as a replacement for the injured Yaqeen Ahmed.
Etzebeth was omitted from the original touring squad due to injury, but fellow lock Salmaan Moerat pulled out of the starting XV for the Italy game due to back spasms in the warm-up - possibly influencing Erasmus' reasoning for bringing Etzebeth in as a potential option for future matches.
Galthie made the bold call to move star scrumhalf Antoine Dupont to flyhalf to compensate for Romain Ntamack's injury, starting Maxime Lucu at scrumhalf.
France: 15 Theo Attissogbe, 14 Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, 13 Kalvin Gourgues, 12 Yoram Moefana, 11 Louis Bielle-Biarrey, 10 Antoine Dupont (captain), 9 Maxime Lucu; 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 2 Julien Marchand, 3 Sipili Falatea, 4 Florian Verhaeghe, 5 Mickael Guillard, 6 Francois Cros, 7 Cameron Woki, 8 Gregory Alldritt.
Replacements: 16 Peato Mauvaka, 17 Rodrigue Neti, 18 Regis Montagne, 19 Charles Ollivon, 20 Tom Staniforth, 21 Esteban Capilla, 22 Axel Desperes, 23 Emilien Gailleton.
South Africa: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Lood de Jager, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Cobus Reinach, 23 Manie Libbok.
Stats:
South Africa have won 9 out of their last 10 Tests against France, including the 2023 World Cup quarter-final at the Stade de France (a 29-28 victory).
Starting France scrumhalf Maxime Lucu is the top points scorer in the Nations Championship to date with 47.