CIt was in front of them that it all started. And it is against them that the first chapter of the new life of the Blues will close. Four months after the tour in Argentina, marked by the indictments for aggravated rape of Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou (1) as well as the exclusion of Melvyn Jaminet, guilty of having made racist remarks while under arrest. drunk, the XV of France has been living in Marcoussis for almost three weeks under the aegis of a new living environment.
A strict “camisole”, formalized via a charter accepted and signed by all the players, led by the manager of the XV of France Raphaël Ibañez. Its main mission is to avoid drunken excesses during the third halves. “There will be a before and an after Mendoza,” the president of the FFR Florian Grill repeated over and over again.
The subject has been widely commented on, with a lot of comments agreed during the first week of the Blues gathering. It has now been tested following the victories against Japan and, above all, against New Zealand at the end of a Homeric showdown. There was a time when this type of “overtestosterone” battle would have been celebrated excessively. Unless the internal regulations still remained secret, that was not the case this time. A priori. The program for this evening had anyway been anticipated internally in agreement with the group of leaders.
After celebrating the victory against the All Blacks in the locker room where, in addition to the handshakes of the “officials”, the Blues received a visit from Léon Marchand, the quadruple gold medalist at the Paris Olympics, the players returned to their hotel in Rueil-Malmaison at more than one in the morning, the same place where they had established their quarters during the World Cup.
XV of France: Louis Bielle-Biarrey flashed at 34.9 km/h on his test
He continues to assert himself on the wing of the XV of France. Louis Bielle-Biarrey was again the author of a gala performance during the victory against the All Blacks on Saturday evening at the Stade de France (30-29). The young winger from Union Bordeaux Bègles (21 years old) scored again after an impressive sprint
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World Rugby unveiled this Monday the list of nominees for the different categories. Antoine Dupont is in the race to win the title of best player of the year at 7 alongside another French Olympic champion Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang. Unsurprisingly, the South African world champions are in number to compete for the title of best player at 15. See you on November 24 in Monaco to find out the winners
“You know, our players are not alcoholics and do not drink alcohol every day, hidden in the room”
There were a few glasses raised: for Romain Buros' first cape, for Antoine Dupont's birthday as well as to celebrate the victory. Nothing extravagant. Around 3 a.m., most of them had already returned to their rooms. With a week reduced to just six days to prepare for the reception of the Argentinians – scheduling for Friday requires – there was not much room for excess anyway.
A revolution compared to what was done before? In charge of the forwards, William Servat answered this question in the negative: “I have the impression that it caused a lot of noise, but it changed absolutely nothing in our way of living for 15 days. You know, our players are not alcoholics and do not drink alcohol every day, hidden in the room or at the table before our training sessions. That was never the case. »
An evening after the Pumas
Certainly. But without being caricatured, we can still say that group life was more “active” in the past in a place which has a little air of “Marcattraz”. Without going so far as to exhume the evenings listed during the Blues' long stay in Aix-en-Provence, during the last World Cup, moments of “conviviality” were more common. To the point that some do not hesitate to describe a dull and boring atmosphere during this tour. An admission that no one will risk making publicly this fall…
When asked what it felt like to celebrate victories with non-alcoholic beer, William Servat responded this after the success in Japan: “I didn't drink any. I think it would be a form of palliative for alcoholics and I'm lucky not to be one (smile). »
The rigidity of the Blues' living environment should, however, be relaxed on Friday evening after the last test against Argentina. Florian Grill had declared that there could be more intense third halves at the end of a Tournament or a tour. It should be. A private evening, with families and loved ones, should be organized in Paris. This was already the case before.
On nights of great victory, it could happen that this kind of story ended in the early morning. On the night following the victory in the 2022 Grand Slam, Baptiste Couilloud dove with the trophy into the Seine. At daybreak, others had obtained from friends that they reopen their restaurant in the early morning. The context of a tour is obviously not the same. But will there still be a before and an after Mendoza?
(1) Their request to dismiss the case has still not been examined.
