If you’ve been even vaguely wondering about nu-France’s potential in depth, the announcement to watch wasn’t the one unveiling the 23-player squad for Sunday’s game against Scotland.
Normally, Fabien Galthie making eight changes to the starting XV that beat Ireland three weeks ago would be newsworthy – and, as these things often are, it has been widely commented on in the Press and on social media.
But no, the announcement to pay attention to was made earlier on Friday and without the fanfare of the lunchtime matchday 23 reveal. Quietly, and without fuss, on Friday morning the FFR released the names of the players called up for this coming Saturday’s game against Italy.
It’s a contractually enforced changed team, following an agreement between the union and the 30 professional clubs in France that limited players to three matches.
Galthie’s announced his training squads early all autumn. He did it for the match at Murrayfield – then hurriedly backtracked when the Fiji game was cancelled, allowing him to pick a more recognisable side for the Edinburgh revenge mission.
The Italy squad was much more interesting. Experience comes from Baptiste Serin (38 caps), in what would be his third and final game of the tournament, as well as recalled La Rochelle duo Uini Atonio (32) and Brice Dulin (29). Then there’s Thomas (20), and Yacouba Camara (17). The other 26 players, as noted by Russ Petty on Twitter, have 31 caps between them – ten players account for all of those because 16 players heading to Marcoussis on Monday are uncapped at senior level.
One, Bordeaux centre, Yoram Moefana has just five Top 14 and six ProD2 games under his belt. Another, Toulouse winger Matthis Lebel, has played just nine senior matches.
Two of those 16 uncapped players – Jean-Pascal Barraque and Gabin Villière – prove, as Vakatawa did before them, that there is, finally, a healthy route to the senior men’s international XV via the country’s improving sevens set-up.
With the notable exceptions of Moefana and Lebel, who are both potential incarnate, there’s reams of Top 14 experience to count on. Stade Francais‘ winger-quick back row Sekou Macalou may have only one cap, and may not have featured for France since February 2018, but he’s played about 100 times for his club – and has been in rare form this season.
Racing hooker Teddy Baubigny may only be 22, but he’s played more than 50 times for the Champions Cup finalists. They start their front row apprenticeships young at Racing – 30-cap international Chat, who made his international debut in 2016, turns 25 in December. Lock Swan Rebbadj has more than 50 appearances for Toulon, while Bordeaux second row Cyril Cazeaux has more than 100 Top 14 outings to his name.
Make no mistake, those players taking to the Stade de France pitch next Saturday evening will not lack experience. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the step-up to international level. Galthie is probably fortunate that his opponents for the player experiment he really didn’t want are Italy.
The Top 14 was supposed to enjoy a rest this weekend – but with all the postponements due to coronavirus, four catch-up games were scheduled. One, Montpellier v Castres has been delayed again because of positive tests at the hosts, leaving just three matches.
Stade Francais survived a late wobble against Bordeaux, eventually winning 26-16, after allowing the visitors back to within three points with a 70th-minute try when – with the score at 19-9 – they had appeared to have successfully suffocated the life out of the game. A few minutes later, however, Alex Arrate went over to put the result beyond doubt.
Signing Gaetan Germain was always a smart move for Bayonne. His nine successful shots at goal out of ten was the difference as the Basque side beat Toulon 35-29, despite losing the try count four-two. They even rode out the bulk of a tense final 10 minutes after conceding a penalty try with just 13 players.
The third – and final – domestic top-flight match of the weekend in France, the fascinating-on-paper La Rochelle v Racing 92 clash, kicks off this evening at 8.05pm (GMT). It could be one of the few remaining Sunday-night Top 14 rugby matches, with broadcaster Canal+ in talks to bring French Ligue 1 soccer back to the primetime slot.
