Fabien Galthié responsible for the slip-ups? Florian Grill defends the Blues coach

On several occasions, during the discussions which followed the various scandals in Mendoza, the responsibility of Fabien Galthié and his staff was mentioned. Indeed, many are asked if the Blues coach and his assistants did not have to tighten the screws themselves by warning their players and regulating, or even banning, their outings?

“No more responsible than anyone else”

Questioned by Le Parisien, Florian Grill literally and completely rejected this idea. The role of a coach is to control everything related to the athlete, to the matches. The president of the FFR even understands the fact that Fabien Galthié described Oscar Jégou and Hugo Auradou as “nuggets”. Once again, for him it was a coach's word on very talented young players.

Fabien's job is sportsmanship. When I arrived in Argentina in Mendoza at the start of the affair, I told him to call the staff and the players together, that we spend two hours together and then each person has their own job. It's up to him to honor the invitation from Argentina and Uruguay and play rugby, to have good matches and it's up to us to take care of the rest.

It was my role to be on the front line (…) we worked to avoid adding drama to the drama because if Auradou and Jegou had been put in common law prison in Mendoza, the risk would have been enormous for them . It was one of the most dangerous prisons in the world (…) Fabien is no more responsible than anyone else.

Faced with such matters, can a coach really be content to only manage the athlete? This is a subject that can also be open to debate. For Florian Grill, this debate seems to have been settled.