Galthié looks back on his winning bets after France-All Blacks

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While the choice of the opening half and the ousting of Matthieu Jalibert had been widely commented on during the week, Fabien Galthié and his staff were able to rejoice in their winning bets after the victory of the XV of France against the All Blacks. And the excellent performance in particular from Thomas Ramos.

France – All Blacks: winning bet for Galthié and the Blues

To tell the truth, choosing to trust Thomas Ramos as fly half, even though it was a meeting of the French XV against the All Blacks, was nothing to worry about. The Toulouse man has the strong nerves and the talent to hold the house, no one doubted it.

On the other hand, as was discussed at length during the preparation week, this choice meant doing without Matthieu Jalibert, probably the best opening half in the Top 14 at the start of the season. And there must have been many people waiting for Fabien Galthié and his staff at the turn. Hence the visible emotion at the final whistle, which the coach returned to after the match.

“We worked a lot to get here and we weren’t always rewarded. We show ourselves that we have made good decisions and that the work we propose and the preparation we propose to the team turns out to be correct. Victory justifies commitment and work or not. And then we can also let go of our emotions. We really had very, very strong and very pleasant emotions. There, it was 100% joy, pleasure, happiness, letting go too,” explained the former number 9.

Fabien Galthié defends his choices

To tell the truth, he didn’t really need to do it since the match had already proven him right. We can see a bit of pride necessary at this level, or the desire to recall one’s convictions. Or the desire to perform a little pirouette, when answering a question about the performance of Thomas Ramos and the much-discussed choice of having aligned the usual back of the Blues in 10.

” Ah good ? Was the choice widely commented on? I hadn’t noticed,” quipped the coach.

Before continuing: “I will let you comment, since it is you who comments on the composition of the team, the choices. You have a lot of perspective to judge the performance of Thomas associated with Antoine, because it is a hinge, then Thomas moved to 15 and Antoine to 10. And also of Romain Buros who was very solid under high balls and who was very impactful in the way he brought the balls up. And I can consider that both of them had a very good match. I don’t know who the man of the match is…”

The man of the match was obviously Thomas Ramos, and that probably did not escape Fabien Galthié who therefore underlined, almost subtextly, that he had been right.

Were those absent from the Stade de France wrong, and one in particular? Time will tell…

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