Forfeited against Italy, how did you experience this draw from your teammates? Grégory Alldritt: It was frustrating to be in the stands, not to be able to make my contribution to help my friends. I think the guys put a lot of energy into it but, unfortunately, they channeled it poorly and lacked efficiency. It generated frustration, then there was this red card… It made this match more and more complicated.
What lessons have you learned from it? We want to return to a more efficient game: scoring points, trying. But, it is not enough to say it, we must also present ourselves on the field with a different state of mind, to become “killers” again in the scoring areas.
Fabien Galthié “challenged” the group by not designating a team composition at the start of the week. Has this uncertainty paid off? What I see is that this has been one of our best weeks of training in a very long time. Particularly on a physical level. Tuesday was one of the biggest days in years in terms of intensity and acceleration. There are players who have a lot of desire and who brought us energy. It boosted everyone, but it’s no guarantee of anything. We all thought it clicked after Scotland and we know what happened with that slap against Italy…
Was the coach more demanding this week? We had a good discussion with Fabien Galthié on Monday. He told us his feelings, we told him ours. He challenged us but he also challenged himself. Afterwards, I say it again, you can have a great week of training and not be good at the weekend. The hardest part still awaits us: transcribing this on the ground.
What do you expect from young people? Firstly, that they have fun. Because if we need them to be the ones to make us win, we have to ask ourselves questions… So I just want the players who are celebrating their first selection to be able to enjoy it and keep good memories of it . We are going to play in an incredible stadium, certainly one of the most beautiful places to play rugby. There will be adversity, hostility, but when you’re competitive, that’s also what you like. So let them break free! And we are going to try to take all these little people away. For example, we shouldn’t expect Manny (Meafou) to make us win alone tomorrow. It would be stupid to think that. What we can do, however, is put him in the right conditions so that he can perform, break tackles, win his duels…
What is missing for the French XV to regain its not-so-old level? Not much is missing. But this small margin is often the hardest to overcome. It is in adversity that we see the characters of the players, the true strengths of each. I am convinced that there is a lot of character and champions in this team.
Comments collected at a press conference