Finally, on the ground. After long and intense weeks of preparation in Monaco then in Marcoussis, the Blues will play, Saturday (4:15 p.m.) at Murrayfield, against Scotland, the first of their four preparation matches before launching “their” World Cup, September 8, at the Stade de France against the All Blacks. For this first trial run, Fabien Galthié and his staff have decided to deprive themselves of their usual executives (this famous “premium team”) and to massively launch the players who must prove that they can integrate the final group of 33 which will be revealed on August 21.
Among them, there are three neophytes who will honor their first international cap: winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey (Bordeaux-Bègles), three-quarter center Émilien Gailleton (Section Paloise), top scorer in the last Top 14, and the third -line Paul Boudehent (La Rochelle), double reigning European champion. The first two had not been selected with the France U20 team (crowned world champion) to try their luck with the “big” XV of France.
One of the big questions in Fabien Galthié’s first line-up concerned the captaincy: who was going to inherit the armband in the absence of Antoine Dupont? It is finally the back Brice Dulin (La Rochelle) who will be the captain of the Blues at Murrayfield, he was preferred to Baptiste Couilloud (Lyon), Matthieu Jalibert (UBB) and Cameron Woki (Racing 92).
In competition with the Toulousains Thomas Ramos and Melvyn Jaminet for the position of number 15, Brice Dulin is given a new chance in the France team, he who had not been called up since the 2021 Tournament. His risky recovery, after the siren , had cost the victory to the Blues against … Scotland at the Stade de France (23-27) and then disappeared from the radar.
Other players will have to prove to the staff that they have the legs and the shoulders to join the final group for the World Cup. We think in particular of the third row Yoan Tanga (La Rochelle), the right pillar Demba Bamba (Lyon) – who had demoted in the hierarchy of numbers 3 – or the second row Bastien Chalureau (Montpellier, 31), who may have be a card to play after the hamstring injury of Romain Taofifenua (Lyon), who will be out for three weeks.
To read also XV of France: who is Louis Bielle-Biarrey, the nugget of Bordeaux-Bègles launched against Scotland?
On the bench of substitutes, the hinge Baptiste Serin (Toulon)-Antoine Hastoy (La Rochelle) will also be closely watched. Just like the pillar Sipili Falatea (UBB) and the versatile center or winger Arthur Vincent, both back from injury.
This “experimental” tricolor team will have a hard time facing Scotland, which has decided to align all its executives before the second preparation match scheduled for next week in Saint-Étienne. Chardon coach Gregor Townsend indeed aligns his big team with all his executives (Watson, R. Gray, Fagerson, Van der Merwe, Tuipulotu). And it is the opener Finn Russell, leaving Racing 92 for Bath, who will be the captain of the Scots, now deprived of their emblematic rear Stuart Hogg, who announced his retirement from sport in early July.
Dulin (cap) – Bielle-Biarrey, Gailleton, Moefana, Dumortier – Jalibert, Couilloud – Macalou, Tanga, Boudehent – Chalureau, Woki – Bamba, Bourgarit, Gros
Substitutes: Mauvaka, Wardi, Falatea, Willemse, Cretin, Serin, Hastoy, Vincent.
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