Fabien Galthié should announce next week a first group of 42 players summoned to Marcoussis to prepare for the next 6 Nations Tournament 2025. Between the returns from injury and several strong choices made in November, the coach will then have to decide on several issues.
The major maneuvers will soon resume, on the side of the XV of France. After a successful November tour, punctuated by three victories and some superb emotions which rekindled the flame of French rugby, the entire staff will therefore meet from this Tuesday evening, near Toulon, for a seminar on three-day work. The objective? The operational preparation for the next 6 Nations Tournament 2025, including the first call-up list of 42 players should be communicated within the next ten days.
On the table, there will be many projects for coach Fabien Galthié and his deputies. This has not been customary since he took office at the head of the Blues. Galthié coach, it was for more than four years an ode to stability: despite possible poor performances, the players of the XV of France must have felt relieved of any pressure to give their best rugby when entering the field. lawn. “Our desire is to build on consistency, on the trust that we have in the men selected from the beginning,” proclaimed the coach throughout his first mandate. This philosophy will therefore have held for five years or almost, until this fall of 2024 when the vocabulary changed: no more stability, welcome to “emulation” where everyone can see their place called into question, according to the competition. Including senior players.
The last decisive matches in the Champions Cup
So, it is with this new data that, according to the method put in place since 2020, each member of the staff will deliver this week, in a seminar, what their own list of 42 would be at time T. This exercise will be repeated again at the beginning next week and before official communication, in light of the meetings of the coming weekend. Which will have a “double counting” value: the coaches of the French XV attach particular importance to the Champions Cup matches, which are both the closest to the international level in terms of intensity and decisive character, where the right to the error is minimal.
In more detail, the hot topics to be decided will firstly concern the management of injuries and trips to the infirmary. The left pillar, for example, where Cyril Baille is only returning from injury after six months of absence and Jean-Baptiste Gros, promoted to starter in November before getting injured in his turn, is just returning to training; the third line, where Ollivon's recent injury is worrying and competition is emerging from all sides (Matiu, Boudehent, Roumat, Gazzotti as well as the return of Jegou, see below); the position of opener, where it will be appropriate to decide the fate of Matthieu Jalibert after the controversies of November, as well as the competition between a returning Romain Ntamack and a sparkling Thomas Ramos. So many subjects which will animate the coming days of the Blues staff. It is already time to lay the first stone of the 2025 Nations Tournament.
France
