“Each training has a personal stake”, estimated Thursday the Lyon winger Ethan Dumortier and the third row from La Rochelle Paul Boudehent, who are trying to win their place for the 2023 World Cup during the preparation course for the Blues in Monaco.
“I do not think I am one of the players who are fully integrated into this workforce”, clearly recognized in a press conference Ethan Dumortier (22 years old, 5 selections), who nevertheless played as a holder all the matches of the last Tournament of six nations.
“So every workout has a personal stake for me,” he continued. But beyond my person, the challenge is also to prepare the entire group for the event that awaits us.
“From my experience with the U20s, a World Cup is not 15 players, underlined the Lyonnais. A whole group is preparing for a long and physically and emotionally difficult competition. The individual objective is to give the maximum to integrate the group”.
By his side, Paul Boudehent (23, 0 sel.) agreed, seeing it as “a great opportunity”. “Ethan has played before,” he said. But there are four of us who have no selection. We have everything to prove, to gain, nothing to lose. It’s awesome.”
If he wants “of course, to integrate, to score points (…) the idea is not to do anything and want to put yourself forward at all costs, he continued. On and off the field, there are moments to spend with everyone, without forcing things and finding their place little by little.
In the meantime, the two feel “better and better physically”. For Boudehent, however, it was “difficult to start again on a preparation, two weeks after the championship final”, lost against Stade Toulouse.
“But we were 19 in this case. We did not ask ourselves any questions, he added. And then, it’s a rich man’s problem. The World Cup is every four years. I don’t know if I will have the opportunity to prepare others.
At the end of the Monegasque training camp on Friday evening, the 42 players summoned by Fabien Galthié will have nine days off, with an athletic program of 1h30 per day over four days.
“The objective is to recover and maintain a state of form in order to continue on the first week in Marcoussis (where the 42 will carry out their second preparation course from July 24 to August 3, editor’s note), even harder”, according to Dumortier.
Boudehent will celebrate his brother’s wedding on Saturday. But he will remain “pro”. Moreover, whether or not they are selected for the World Cup, what they are doing this summer is not “lost work”, said Dumortier.
“If we are in the list (of the 33 for the World Cup, announced on August 21, editor’s note), we will be ready. If we are not, we will join the train of our team in the Top 14”, he concluded.
