France-Japan: time to play! After the summer polluted by business, how Antoine Dupont and the Blues hope to regain their momentum and their dignity

Hearts up! Whether they are from life or from the XV of France, the blue frames are back. In the locker room, on the pitch and even off the pitch… Finally! The opportunity, we hope, to talk about games again after a cataclysmic start to the summer. Because the refreshing promises of the first summer test in Mendoza, following the doglit of a Tournament despite everything finished in second place, were quickly swept away by the slightly too alcoholic night celebrations which followed, and the excesses which resulted from it .

Also read:
France-Japan: “No one knows him!” But who is Damian Schneider, the very young Argentinian referee of the French XV match?

While the bulk of the contingent of internationals from Toulouse and Bordeaux-Bègles were enjoying a well-deserved vacation, and Antoine Dupont was expanding his list of achievements while boosting his popularity, the blues – well helped by experienced elements – therefore finished plunging French rugby into the storm that it had unleashed on the evening of its elimination in the quarter-final of “its” World Cup, against the future double South African champions.

Also read:
Antoine Dupont: “There are a lot of similarities!” How the star player imports the game of Stade Toulousain into the French XV

A Stade de France to which the Blues of the XV have not returned since, JO obliges, their captain taking charge with the septists to re-enchant it, golden smile and dance steps to boot.
The future will tell whether the Argentinian torments were a blessing in disguise.

Japan, the ideal stepping stone?

But it is certain that everything will not be resolved with a simple charter of good conduct or with outbursts from the gondola head of French rugby. A captain who certainly has broad shoulders but who cannot be asked to carry the burden of restoring momentum and dignity to an entity whose image has seriously deteriorated. Including on the ground where it has, for once, been locked up for too long in a framework that is far too restrictive against a backdrop of “dispossession”. Before clumsily attempting to take the turn of the equally pompous “repossession”.

In the redemption mission entrusted to him, Dupont will have to be supported by partners of good will, now aware that few players are established and that the lines can quickly move. The collective experience sometimes taken to the extreme having demonstrated certain limits, the notion of competition – or emulation, call it what you will – has therefore been brought up to date. The freshness injected into the starting XV against Japan (Tatafu, Roumat and the unprecedented Moefana-Gailleton association in the center behind a Toulouse hinge which has not finished making Jalibert think about his place in the project and the confidence that we grant it) should thus allow the Blues to perfectly open the autumn window against the 14th nation in the world.

Also read:
20-minute red card: how it will be applied during France-Japan and the fall tour of the XV of France

On paper, the ideal stepping stone before the New Zealand justice of the peace in a week, the summit of a series of tests which will conclude with a tricky meeting against the Argentines. When it comes time to reconnect the thread of their history, the French know that they will be judged on the results, that is obvious, but also on their ability to generate emotions again with a game that we would like to be as careful as the mustache by Fabien Galthié.