Rougerie (right) celebrates his try with Castaignede

Tries by Dimitri Szarzewski and Frederic Michalak helped France into a 15-0 lead after just 15 minutes.

Percy Montgomery's penalty cut the gap to 15-3 at half-time, and Bakkies Botha went over soon after the break, having appeared to put a foot into touch

Aurelien Rougerie then scored a superb blindside try. A late Jaque Fourie try gave the Boks hope, but France held on.

It was France's fourth November win in a row, having defeated Australia 26-16, Canada 50-6 and Tonga 43-8.

When you have a young team, it's hard for them to make the right decisions all the time... we need to learn from this and progress Jake White

Springboks coach Jake White said: "I am very disappointed, not just because we lost but because of the bad start to the match.

"We committed too many stupid defensive errors that put us under pressure."

French coach Bernard Laporte said he was proud of his team and their consistency.

"We had a good first half and performed bravely in the second period. I am very proud of the team but we still have work to do.

"There is work to be done with the physical challenges, they took better ball than us. If we want to be world champions, then we will have to do better."

France: Thomas Castaignede (Saracens); Aurelien Rougerie (Clermont), Florian Fritz (Toulouse), Yannick Jauzion (Toulouse), Cedric Heymans (Toulouse); Frederic Michalak (Toulouse), Dimitri Elissalde (Toulouse); Julien Bonnaire (Bourgoin), Remy Martin (Stade Francais), Yannick Nyanga (Toulouse); Jerome Thion (Biarritz, capt), Lionel Nallet (Castres); Pieter De Villiers (Stade Francais), Dimitri Szarzewski (Stade Francais), Olivier Milloud (Bourgoin)
Replacements: Sebastien Bruno (Sale), Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Francais), Gregory Lamboley (Toulouse), Thomas Lievremont (Biarritz), Pierre Mignoni (Clermont), Yann Delaigue (Castres), Pepito Elhorga (Agen)

South Africa: Percy Montgomery (Sharks); Breyton Paulse (Clermont), Jaque Fourie (Cats), Jean de Villiers (Stormers), Bryan Habana (Bulls); Meyer Bosman (Cats), Michael Claassens (Cats); Jacques Cronje (Bulls), Juan Smith (Cats), Schalk Burger (Stormers); Victor Matfield (Bulls), Bakkies Botha (Bulls); CJ van der Linde (Cats), John Smit (Sharks, capt), Os du Randt (Cats)
Replacements: Gary Botha (Blue Bulls), Eddie Andrews (Western Province), Albert van den Berg (Sharks), Danie Rossouw (Bulls), Bolla Conradie (Stormers), De Wet Barry (Stormers), Conrad Jantjes (Golden Lions)