What is your assessment of this preparation before moving on to the match against Scotland? Gaël Fickou: It was a very big week for us, where there was a very high intensity, a lot of training, a lot of load.. It wasn’t easy. We had to finish well before cutting two and a half days to regenerate and recharge the batteries before the first game. It was very trying, very hard physically and mentally… but I think it was handled very well by the staff. We had a lot of downtime, we were able to go home for quite long periods of time. It’s quite pleasant. It’s a preparation where everything is calculated, we don’t run for nothing. Everything we do, we do it thoroughly.

Are you starting to miss rugby? Of course, we’re here to play rugby. The physical preparation is not the most pleasant part but that’s it, next week, we attack the matches so we will start to have fun again, to talk about strategy again, to be more in rugby… We are starting to get to the heart of the matter.

You have already played and prepared for two Worlds. What are the differences with the past? We are in the continuity of what we have done since the beginning of the mandate. We still provide details about our game: during the Six Nations Tournament or the tours, we have very little time to be together. You have to be efficient from the start. There, we have two months to prepare, we have no excuse. We try to be the best and most precise possible.