As the first preparation course for the Blues for the 2023 World Cup in France ends on Friday (September 8 – October 28), the French management said they were “very satisfied” with the investment and the state of mind of the 42 players called up to Monaco. “They all hooked up, so we are very satisfied with the state of mind, their investment, the encouragement they give each other,” said Karim Ghezal, co-trainer of the conquest and specific tasks of the XV of France.
Explosiveness, acceleration, specific workshops… The sessions, by some 30 degrees, which the 42 players selected by Fabien Galthié rubbed shoulders with at the Louis-II stadium aimed to “upgrade” the nineteen finalists of the championship, La Rochelle and Toulouse, with the others.
“We are very, very happy with the rugby session today (Thursday, editor’s note), added Ghezal. And more generally high quality work provided for fifteen days. “Our luxury is to have been able to work individually with our players, on fairly simple things in the end, such as passes,” he said. “Our first condition was that the players could accept the workload during these fifteen days,” explained performance director Thibault Giroud.
And the great satisfaction of the staff, he added, “is that we have 100% of the players” who were available: “we did not have to worry about adapting (the program of sessions) for certain players. “We are really on an integral collective development and above all we see that the players recover very quickly, that they are able to bring us things very quickly”, rejoiced Giroud.
For him, “we have to be able to move longer, to change pace, to accelerate at any time of the match and at any place on the pitch, especially for our front eight: this is the key to the very, very high level”. A method that he summed up as follows: “we want to train high to play easy, it seems “con” as a sentence but that’s it”.
Some players, “who are not used to getting into the hard”, thus “played the game” and without “letting go”: “everyone is behind, the whole group, and that’s important” , also noted Giroud. “Because we can talk about ‘perf’, science, numbers, whatever you want, but rugby is a combat sport and if you are not able to put your head on the ground of your colleague, it will not work”, he recalled. Another satisfaction: despite the intensity of the sessions, no injuries were reported. “We are lucky, the 42 who started the course are all on deck,” said Ghezal. What Giroud explained by a “maximum sequencing of the sessions” and the many “recovery beaches” (Wednesdays and the weekend having been “off”), which avoided injuries.
From Saturday, the players have nine days of rest, with a personalized athletic program to respect, before meeting in Marcoussis for a second internship until August 3. “I will have an hour and a half of work on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, four sessions in the week in autonomy”, explained the third line from La Rochelle Paul Boudehent. “It will represent each time an hour of bodybuilding and thirty minutes of running”.
“We will be equipped with a GPS, which will allow the staff to know exactly what we are doing. I’m not worried, everyone will play the game,” he said. “We know exactly what they are going to do,” confirmed Giroud. Before concluding: “For me, it’s caviar, because opposite, I have guys who go after themselves.”
