The Springboks registered their first win on their overseas tour on Saturday, beating France 29-26 at Stade de France.
But if it wasn’t for their benchwarmers that made the difference in the end, coach Rassie Erasmus and his side would have suffered back-to-back defeats after losing to England the week before.
Trailing 26-22 with regular time done, the Boks thought they had sealed a late win when Aphiwe Dyantyi sailed over in the left corner for a try.
The TMO was called in and decided the final pass to Dyantyi from Willie le Roux went forward.
Luckily for South Africa, they had a penalty advantage for France collapsing a maul in the build-up.
From there, replacement hooker Bongi Mbonambi found lock Franco Mostert at the back of the lineout before they set up a maul.
The Boks gave it their all in the final shove to win the match and Mbonambi, who found his lineout jumpers with sniping accuracy after replacing Malcolm Marx, dove over for the match-winner.
The Boks, though, will know they rode their luck.
Their biggest let-down this time around was defence as Les Blues players slipped out of their tackles at will.
The match started on the slow side, with the scorecard reading 9-9 with five minutes left to play in the first half.
That’s when France got their first five-pointer after France captain Guilhem Guirado broke a Marx tackle off the back of a maul to make it 16-9 at the break.
Straight from the restart, Bok wing Sbu Nkosi failed to collect a high ball five metres from their tryline and the ball bounced in the hands of France centre Mathieu Bastareaud, who barged over (23-9).
Still in shock, Pieter-Steph du Toit then chased down the restart expertly to tackle the French receiver, who lost control of the ball.
Nkosi then collected it to strike back for SA (23-16) and two Handre Pollard penalties brought the Boks to within one point with 20 minutes to go.
But a late charge from Bok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk then gave France a penalty which made it 26-22.
That’s when the Bok bench started chasing the win and with Elton Jantjies controlling matters at flyhalf, Francois Louw competing at the breakdown and Mbonambi faultless at hooker, they got their reward.