the essential
For the last match of the year, just six days after its success against the Blacks, the XV of France is back at the Stade de France against the formidable Pumas.
The Japanese starter devoured (52-12), the New Zealand main course swallowed not without difficulty (30-29), the French must now put the icing on the Argentinian cake and bite into it. A possibly very salty autumnal dessert which has none of the idea we have of a sweet end of meal. “It’s a team that’s having a great season. It’s not afraid and is made up of great players,” warns Fabien Galthié straight away. “It’s really a Rugby that is very intelligent, that is catching up with the best nations in the world . She is very difficult to play, is one of the best nations in the world without any problem.”
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Emulation to avoid decompression
The observation made, this third meeting of the year looks like a good one between Blues and Pumas after the eventful draw of the summer in South America (28-13 for Serin and his gang in Mendoza and 25-33 in Buenos Aires), will especially offer Antoine Dupont's teammates the possibility of achieving a third success in as many tests. And therefore to present themselves, at a minimum, with a lot of confidence in the green in a little over two months for the opening of the Tournament, in their garden at the Stade de France against the Welsh on the edge of the abyss.
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Still looking for certainty that the third victory in three years against the Blacks – it will certainly only take a fortnight next summer to see the New Zealanders equalize at 3-3 against the French second knives – has not brought in both in the game and in defense, the Blues staff perfectly identified the danger that awaited their troops. How can we not imagine, six days after a bitter fight in the only five-star match of the triptych, that a form of decompression could not interfere in French minds?
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So to put all the chances on his side in this match which “is not a gift”, and not to ruin everything on a pitch where the snow was present yesterday for the captain's training, the former half of melee chose to inject new blood. Faced with injuries and the poor form of certain executives, who now know that few of them are really untouchable, almost a third of the starting XV has been renewed compared to last week. With returns more (Atonio, Cros) or less (Ollivon, Barré) programmed.
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Egos to take care of
“Facing these teams, we need to regenerate but we knew that before,” explains Galthié. “That’s why there are rotations, a group that moves a little but needs consistency […] This is also why we allow ourselves to give regeneration windows to players who could make three selections in November.”
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A speech necessarily aimed at sparing egos in his group even if he does not hide his wish to have “very strong emulation” because “the stronger it is, the stronger the French team will be”. Faced with an opponent who has 10 “French” players in his ranks, whose grinta we know, who beat South Africa, New Zealand and Australia this summer during the Rugby Championship and has just come close to the feat last Friday in Ireland (19-22), she had the opportunity to demonstrate the benefits to end the year well.
