YESTERDAY BROUGHT TWO fresh jolts of queasiness for any France fans with a lingering World Cup hangover.
The first bit of news could have been written off as dull administrative stuff when it was actually an insight into the Top 14 clubs taking back a bit more power from the national team.
In short, les Bleus boss Fabien Galthié will only be able to call 34 players into camp each week for training, starting from the upcoming Six Nations, as opposed to the 42 he has been able to call up until now.
Under the previous agreement between the Fédération Française de Rugby [FFR] and the Ligue Nationale de Rugby [LNR] – the latter of which represents the clubs – the national team had more leeway as they chased glory in their home World Cup last year.
The reduction from 42 to 34 might not seem like a huge deal but national team coaches place major importance on having those few extra bodies at training to cover injuries, ensure no one is getting too many reps, and make sessions as competitive and high quality as possible.
As reported by Midi Olympique and L’Équipe, Galthié will now have fewer players available at training than his rival Six Nations coaches. He will also have to send six of those 34 back to their clubs each Wednesday, replacing them with six different players from clubs outside of the four who provide the bulk of the national squad, namely Toulouse, La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Racing.
This is the reality of France’s home World Cup cycle being over. For four years, it seemed as if everything in French rugby was streamlined towards les Bleus delivering their first World Cup title.
Having beaten off competition from South Africa and Ireland to host the tournament, we saw the rugby community in France come together with one big aim.
The FFR and LNR worked together more amicably and closely than ever. But this latest agreement underlines that the Top 14 clubs are now prioritising their own interests. They pay the players, so they’re keen to get a full return on investment.
That’s also why many of France’s World Cup players were almost immediately back into Top 14 action after les Bleus’ quarter-final exit against South Africa. Some of the squad played club games the very next weekend and most were back quickly, even if La Rochelle number eight Grégory Alldritt got a mini sabbatical until last weekend.
The second big news story yesterday was not unexpected but it will still have hurt many of les Bleus’ supporters.
They knew Antoine Dupont was switching to 7s for the Olympics and that he would miss the Six Nations as a result but it was still weird seeing videos of him at his first training session with the 7s squad.
There was France’s 15-a-side captain and talisman, the best player in the world, doing burpees in the middle of a huddle of his new 7s team-mates. Dupont has to earn their adoration now and Galthié and co. have to move on without him for the rest of this season.
Les Bleus’ summer tour this year will see them face Argentina in a two-Test series and possibly play against either Uruguay or Chile, with Galthié expected to bring something akin to a development squad to South America. So the big job at hand is this Six Nations, which starts at home against Grand Slam champions Ireland in Marseille in just over four weeks.
Dupont will obviously be missed, while first-choice out-half Romain Ntamack remains on the comeback trail from the knee injury that meant he missed the World Cup.
The good news is that Bordeaux halfback pair Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert, the likely starting scrum-half and out-half, have been in excellent form. 30-year-old Lucu has been playing some of the best rugby of his career and Jalibert’s attacking class has once again stood out for a Bordeaux side who are second in the Top 14 and have won both of their Champions Cup games so far.
There was also some relief for Galthié yesterday as the LNR’s latest batch of disciplinary hearings confirmed that explosive inside centre Jonathan Danty and hulking lock Romain Taofifénua will be available for the start of the Six Nations. They were recently red carded in the Top 14 but their suspensions will have been served before the championship gets underway.
Taofifénua was supposed to have retired from Test rugby after the World Cup along with first-choice tighthead prop Uini Atonio, but Galthié has convinced the 33-year-old pair to play on for now.
While Galthié does have other mammoth locks to call on, particularly with Toulouse’s 145kg powerhouse Emmanuel Meafou now eligible to play for France, it’s a huge boost to have tighthead prop Atonio’s experience available in a position that otherwise might have suddenly looked callow.
And despite the frustrations of the new FFR-LNR agreement and being without Dupont, the French boss will feel he still has the weapons to go after a Six Nations title in the coming months.
Bordeaux wing Damian Penaud has been in brilliant form, Alldritt is now back fit and refreshed, hooker Julien Marchand has returned from injury having missed most of the World Cup, Lucu and Jalibert have been humming together, and the impressive depth of players in French rugby has not gone away as the likes of uncapped 21-year-old Stade Français fullback/out-half Léo Barré shine in the Top 14.
Meanwhile, the huge wave of support that featured in France’s quest to win the World Cup last year is still surging, even if the dejection at their quarter-final exit was acute.
Midi Olympique recently reported that there were 400,000 ticket requests for les Bleus’ three home Six Nations matches this year despite only 175,000 tickets being available. That is remarkable demand.
Like Dupont, the Stade de France in Paris is now getting ready for the Olympics this summer, so France will play Ireland in Marseille, Italy in Lille, and England in Lyon in the final game of the championship.
They may have had a few setbacks but Galthié will still feel his team has more than enough firepower to be playing for a title or a Grand Slam when that clash with the English rolls around.
With that in mind, the opening game against Ireland on 2 February is a potential decider.
