Émilien Gailleton, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Paul Boudehent will honor their first selection. What do you expect from them? Fabien Galthié: “Émilien and Louis are twenty years old. It’s very young, they are certainly among the youngest capped players in history. But they don’t ask so many questions. Afterwards, everyone has a particular path. Ideal for Émilien and Louis, who worked for the French youth teams. And they’ve been working with the France team for almost a year. Their selection is therefore not really a surprise. It responds to a coherence, to a logic. From Monday to Wednesday, we can see the best players of the moment match. And these two sent signals very early on… The course is a little different for Paul Boudehent. It was France 7 who revealed it, like Gabin Villière. It was on this circuit that he took on a new dimension. He has a little more maturity than Louis and Émilien given his career with Stade Rochelais.
What are their strengths? Raphaël Ibanez: “Their selection combines the playing environment and the living environment. On this second aspect, they are perfectly integrated. They have for them this paradoxical form of maturity and recklessness, two words which, usually, do not go together. They are very serious, very applied, have no apprehension to intervene in front of the whole group. And they are super well integrated.”F. G.: “In rugby, they have really imposed themselves since last season. They have a career with the French youth teams which announces a consistent rise in power. They perform well at club level, they are versatile, Émilien can play on the wing and Louis at the back. French rugby can be proud to release players with such potential. It’s up to us to support them so that they become master players. But the recklessness of youth and the potential of rugby, that will be enough for now.
Why did you make the revenant captain Brice Dulin?A. I.: “What an honor and what happiness for him. It is anything but a coincidence. He is completely legitimate in this role. He owes it only to him, to his perseverance since the beginning of the preparation. This choice is so natural. Brice is a leader at heart. A leader in his team, European champion. And he will be accompanied by other well-identified leaders within this XV of France.
Is his tenure also the result of a trend towards a more possession-based game again? F. G.: “Strategy and tactics must take the rules into account. They have been evolving for a year towards the possibility of holding the ball more in front of the defense. This does not prevent that it is always necessary to find the good alternation. But, normally, we will see longer possessions which, normally also, will be rewarded. We take it into account. But we also take into account the form of the player at the moment T. Brice was absent for two years because the dynamic was more around Melvyn (Jaminet) and Thomas (Ramos) who chained a lot of victories. We preferred to leave Brice available to his club rather than have him come to Marcoussis for three days. Finally, Brice has a rare specificity in the team: a left foot. He brings a different form of footwork.
You will announce the list of 33 on August 21, after three of the four warm-up matches. How will these be decisive in deciding?F. G.: “Whoa. There are 60 players who are preparing for the World Cup, 42 with us and 18 who are preparing on their own, in their clubs, but have pledged to be ready if we have to call them. The list is a non-event. We are quite clear on this vision. We do not play on ambiguity. We assume our reading, our work. Everything is possible. Of these 42, 33 names will be announced on August 21. But it’s not a finality, not a cut. If you look closely at all the World Cups, there are always events happening that you can’t imagine today, but we know that there will be injury-related changes. This list of 33 is therefore not an end in itself, this list of 33. The nine players have strong possibilities of returning during the World Cup. They even have a chance to watch her in their armchair and play the final as a starter…”
So the new picks don’t have any particular pressure on this game? F. G.: “A player with zero caps can be better than a player with 50 caps. You never know how a match is going to unfold… So you have to live in the moment. They are told ”Be happy to be with us”. And I believe they are. Enjoy every moment in community, enjoy the wonderful. It is now. The future, we will see…”
Opposite, Scotland aligns its best team. Do you think you can compete? F. G.: “Above all, they have a month of preparation ahead of us, their championship having ended at the end of May. They have already played a match (25-13 victory against Italy last Saturday, editor’s note). They advance with their best team of the moment, that of the 5th nation in the world. It is therefore a peak to play and we are preparing for difficulty, for chaos. But we have arguments to make. For four years, whatever our team competition, we have matched. So we are going to match on Saturday…”
Will you value the content more than the outcome? F. G.: “It’s not a subject. We are very happy to have four preparation matches. It puts us in the juice, it puts us under pressure, in discomfort. It already puts us in the dynamics of the World Cup. We step into the unknown. Face the 5th nation in the world at home in front of 70,000 spectators, we will see what it will give…”
Statements taken at a press conference
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