{"id":780224,"date":"2026-09-23T18:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/780224\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:38:12","slug":"france-lose-heavyweight-for-november-showdown-with-springboks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/780224\/","title":{"rendered":"France lose heavyweight for November showdown with Springboks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published: 3 hours ago | 23 September 2026 11:06 EDT <\/p>\n

mens<\/p>\n

international<\/p>\n

France’s lock Emmanuel Meafou (C) reacts after scoring his teams’s second try during the Six Nations international rugby union match between France and Italy at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, northern France, on February 22, 2026. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY \/ AFP) \"Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

France<\/a> and Toulouse<\/a> second-row Emmanuel Meafou is set to be sidelined for up to three months after sustaining a knee injury against Vannes<\/a> in the Top 14<\/a> on Saturday, French outlet La Depeche<\/a> have reported.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old picked up the injury in the dying seconds of his side\u2019s 29-23 win over the league\u2019s newcomers following an illegal no-arms tackle by his France team-mate Rodrigue Neti.<\/p>\n

La Depeche have reported the extent of the injury after the 145kg lock missed Toulouse\u2019s open training session on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

With fellow lock Cl\u00e9ment Verg\u00e9 already sidelined with an ACL injury, the French champions may be forced into recruiting a medical joker to ease the pressure on their squad until Meafou returns in December.<\/p>\n

This injury is also a hammer blow to France head coach Fabien Galthi\u00e9, who rarely excludes the Australian-born forward from his matchday squads.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Nations Championship<\/p>\n

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France <\/p>\n

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South Africa <\/p>\n

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France host Fiji, South Africa<\/a> and Argentina<\/a> in the Nations Championship<\/a> in November, and Meafou\u2019s sizeable frame would have been desired to counter the vaunted Springboks pack, which will take on Les Bleus in Paris on Friday, November 13.<\/p>\n

That encounter with the world champions carries extra weight as it will be the last meeting between the two sides ahead of a potential World Cup semi-final in Australia<\/a> in 2027.<\/p>\n

France have only won one of their last 10 encounters with Rassie Erasmus\u2019 side, and, crucially, are yet to exact revenge over the Boks for dumping them out of their home World Cup in 2023. Any hopes of achieving that have taken a hit with Meafou\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

Toulouse, meanwhile, will be without Meafou for their Investec Champions Cup<\/a> opening round encounter with Gallagher PREM finalists Exeter Chiefs<\/a> on October 18. He will be in a race to return for the round two encounter with the Lions<\/a> in Johannesburg on December 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 3 hours ago | 23 September 2026 11:06 EDT mens international France’s lock Emmanuel Meafou (C) reacts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-780224","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\/780224","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=780224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}