Do you have any news from Antoine Dupont? Fabien Galthié: Currently he is in hospital where he is undergoing examinations. There is a suspicion of a crack or fracture on the maxilla. I don’t know more at the moment, sorry.
Do you regret not bringing it out at halftime?I knew I would be asked this question! What do you want me to tell you? I can’t take all eight players out at half-time. We had planned to replace three at half-time and five around the 55th minute. If we hadn’t kept Antoine, we could of course say that… But these players, this team wanted and needed to play.
Also readFrance-Namibia: “Suspicion of crack or fracture on the maxilla” for Dupont, in hospital
Is this record success, with 14 tries scored, tarnished by this injury? Of course, when a player is injured, you are never happy. We are still very concerned. It’s not the same as if there had been zero injuries… But we still won.
Did you enjoy seeing the offensive festival of your players? Ah there, but I always enjoy it. In every match of the France team, there is something sublime, something wonderful. Sometimes I suffer, sometimes it’s hard but, overall, we always enjoy ourselves. We are aware of where we are, what we are experiencing. Here, the audience is fantastic, unique. There is something irrational about this stadium. The instructions for this match were to play together, as a team, to try to play fair.
What did you think of Damian Penaud’s performance? I have a lot of perspective on the individual judgment of the players. I’m not risking it. Damian is one of the best French players, he deserves each of his selections. Its potential is proven. But it’s never easy, whatever the opponent. Tonight, the players scored all these points because they tried to stay focused, to apply themselves, to play as a team. Damian, like Louis, entered into this collective dynamic.
Louis Bielle-BIarrey, in fact, did he score points again in your mind? If I look at the stats, he had space, balls, he was well served, even overserved. He releases a test balloon. He was in a good place and he had a lot of fun. The team wanted to go on the wings and there, he is going very, very quickly. He provided a good response to his selection…
Your next match is October 6, against Italy. How are you going to spend these two weeks? As we usually do. We will take stock of everyone, physical and psychological, and we will quickly rebuild a new team composition. Our training cycles are already scheduled. The players have three days off, until Monday. Then back to training because we have not reached the end of our development in several sectors. Italy week, we will focus more on the opponent.
Comments collected at a press conference
