POSOLO TUILAGI, THE 19-year-old nephew of England star Manu Tuilagi, has been given a late call into France’s matchday 23 for tomorrow’s Six Nations opener against Ireland.
The lock — who plays his club rugby with Perpignan in the Top 14, and was part of France’s World U20 Championship winning team last summer — is set to make his senior international debut from the bench in Marseille.
Tuiliagi replaces Romain Taofifenua (illness) in Fabien Galthie’s squad, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) confirmed on Thursday.
The Samoa-born Tuilagi’s father is former Samoa international and Perpignan player Henry Tuilagi, and is also the nephew of former Samoa internationals Freddie, Alesana, Anitelea and Sanele Vavae Tuilagi.
France forwards coach William Servat was in no doubt that Tuilagi, a giant who weighs in at 150kg and stands 1.94m tall, would fit right in.
“Posolo took part in a training session last week,” Servat said.
“He’s ready. He’s integrated pretty well.”
Meanwhile France captain Grégory Alldritt says consistency is key for his side ahead of the “massive challenge” of taking on Ireland.
“The beauty of this competition is that every weekend is a tough weekend,” said the La Rochelle No 8 who has led his club to back-to-back Champions Cup titles.
“It will be a bit too early to say that (it is the decider).
“Of course, it’s a really important game for the tournament. But I remember four years ago we didn’t get a bonus point against England and we lost the Six Nations with that.
“That’s the beauty of the Six Nations. You need to be consistent every weekend, so we just go step by step and the first one is a massive step for us… a massive challenge.”
Alldritt said coach Fabien Galthié had gathered a “great squad”.
“We’re in the zone of what we’ve been doing for the last four years,” he said.
“I feel the same pressure as before any Six Nations, any cap… But there’s no negative pressure, we’re confident of our gameplan, we’ll just have to be very accurate and really front up tomorrow.
“We’ve trained well and we’re ready for a big match. You need this pressure to have knots in your stomach the day of a game!”
France
- 15. Thomas Ramos
- 14. Damian Penaud
- 13. Gael Fickou
- 12. Jonathan Danty
- 11. Yoram Moefana
- 10. Matthieu Jalibert
- 9. Maxime Lucu
- 1. Cyril Baille
- 2. Peato Mauvaka
- 3. Uini Atonio
- 4. Paul Gabrillagues
- 5. Paul Willemse
- 6. Francois Cros
- 7. Charles Ollivon
- 8. Gregory Alldritt (captain)
Replacements:
- 16. Julien Marchand
- 17. Reda Wardi
- 18. Dorian Aldegheri
- 19. Cameron Woki
- 20. Posolo Tuilagi
- 21. Paul Boudehent
- 22. Nolann Le Garrec
- 23. Louis Bielle-Biarrey
– Additional reporting © AFP 2024
– Updated 2.24pm: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Romain Taofifenua has been ruled out due to injury; he has been ruled out through illness.
