Fabien Galthié, the coach of the French XV, has never hidden his long-standing attachment and closeness with Bernard Laporte, the former president of the French Rugby Federation, who appointed him to this position. Asked on RMC’s Moscato Show to know if he had missed Laporte during the last Rugby World Cup organized in France, Fabien Galthié confided: “I will keep this answer to myself, because it is of the order of respondent. But you know my answer.”

Bernard Laporte, the president of the French Rugby Federation, was sentenced on December 13, 2022 to two years in prison for having entered into a “corruption pact” with the businessman and president of the Montpellier club Mohed Altrad . He resigned from his post as president of the FFR at the end of January.