Back this Saturday against Scotland for their second preparation match for the 2023 World Cup, the XV of France will be with its executives, called the “premium”, will soon see this nickname banned from the vocabulary associated with the XV France, in any case, that’s what coach Fabien Galthié hopes.
“Today, there is no more premium. We have to take out this vocabulary, remove it. As much as we mentioned it during the four regular seasons, it allowed us to explain how we built our seasons with the calendar offered by the Top 14 and the rhythm to which international players are subject. We had decided to develop a team over six months, from November to the Tournament, it was the premium players and build a touring team with the French development team. Today, there is no more all that, it is a French team, a French group which is preparing for the World Cup”.
The coach of the Blues also returned to Paul Boudehent, again established after his first successful last Saturday. : “He had a very good end to the season with La Rochelle, he started, he had a string of good performances, he had a very good preparation. In the first game (in Scotland) he lived up to our expectations on his profile and what he needed to do offensively and defensively and he recovered very well. François Cros being stopped, in the composition of the third row, it seemed interesting to us to keep him to seek a balance with Charles Ollivon and Grégory Alldritt”.
Dorian Aldegheri is rewarded by his coach: “For Dorian (Aldegheri) and Uini (Atonio), we are in preparation and management. Dorian had started the match at Twickenham with a very good first half, in the absence of Uini who was suspended. Unfortunately he could not continue because he forfeited behind so he deserved after his very good season and his title of champion of France to come back for number 3 as part of the emulation. And then we reintegrate Uini (replacing Saturday) in the France team, who was suspended after Ireland and who needs to return to the France group and play again with us after his very good season with La Rochelle”.
Finally, Galthié recalled that his bench was adaptable: “We train for different scenarios. There was a (bench) 5-3 (5 forwards, 3 backs) last weekend, we saw how the comeback of the finishers went. There we are working on a 6-2 this weekend for reasons of adaptation. There are players that we want to put on the field but also mix the group in relation to physio, rugby and development of collective experience objectives (…) In our 6-2, the role of Louis Bielle -Biarrey is interesting because he covers three positions and Sekou Macalou resumes his role as a versatile third line player and winger.
