{"id":243287,"date":"2025-11-04T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T12:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/243287\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T12:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T12:46:10","slug":"it-was-our-world-cup-and-springboks-came-and-stole-it-off-us-lucu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/243287\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It was our World Cup and Springboks came and stole it off us’: Lucu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

France<\/a> scrum-half Maxime Lucu<\/a> has said that their Rugby World Cup<\/a> quarter-final defeat to South Africa \u201creally stuck with\u201d the French people ahead of their rematch at the weekend.<\/p>\n

Les Bleus and the Springboks will meet at the Stade de France on Saturday for the first time since their 28-29 quarter-final epic in 2023, with Fabien Galthie\u2019s side eyeing revenge over the world champions.<\/p>\n

Lucu, who was an unused substitute in Paris two years ago, is expected to start in the rematch with Antoine Dupont<\/a> still out, and believes everything is set up for a \u201cgreat game\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"VideoTests of time \u2013 Episode 1 | Trailer | RPTV<\/p>\n

The 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter final between New Zealand and Ireland will forever be remembered as an all time classic. Episode one of Tests of Time looks into what made that night so special. Watch now on RugbyPass TV.<\/p>\n

Watch now<\/a><\/p>\n

\"VideoTests of time \u2013 Episode 1 | Trailer | RPTV<\/p>\n

The 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter final between New Zealand and Ireland will forever be remembered as an all time classic. Episode one of Tests of Time looks into what made that night so special. Watch now on RugbyPass TV.<\/p>\n

South Africa<\/a> enter the contest ranked number one in the world while France have recently slipped to fifth following England\u2019s victory over Australia<\/a> last week an their 3-0 series loss to the All Blacks<\/a> in the summer, where they fielded hugely understrength teams. This is, nevertheless, a clash between the Rugby Championship<\/a> winners and the Six Nations<\/a> champions, and there is a strong case that this will be the match of the Autumn Nations Series.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the match, the Bordeaux-Begles general spoke highly of his opponents, describing them as a \u201ccomplete side\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re much more than just brutes,\u201d he said when speaking to the EPCR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true they\u2019re unbelievably strong but they\u2019ve also got a lot of quick and nimble youngsters coming through.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s talent everywhere; they\u2019re a complete side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t wait to take them on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re back-to-back world champions. Everything\u2019s set up perfectly for a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the 32-year-old, and indeed all of France, there is an edge to this match given the impact of the quarter-final defeat on home soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a massive defeat for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, the French people, it\u2019s really stuck with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was our World Cup and they came and stole it off us. It was such a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France scrum-half Maxime Lucu has said that their Rugby World Cup quarter-final defeat to South Africa \u201creally stuck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-243287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}