It was quite a feat that the players of the France team achieved on Saturday evening, seeking victory against the Blacks. Fabien Galthié, as we know and he has said it, is already focused on the 2027 World Cup and this tour in November is a first step in working towards this objective.
This success validates the first good foundations for work, but as Antoine Dupont insisted at a press conference, there are other deadlines which will arrive behind. Beating the Blacks is a good thing, it remains an event, but an event without a title at the end. You have to think about what's next. And what follows is a shortened week of preparation for a match against Argentina on Friday evening.
“A walk in our path”
The Blues remain with a defeat against the Argentines, with a match which took place in a very complicated context for the XV of France, linked to the scandals around Hugo Auradou, Oscar Jégou and Melvyn Jaminet. There is therefore revenge to be taken for this defeat, to finish this tour well. The Blues cannot therefore waste too much time savoring this victory against the New Zealanders especially since, once again, it does not offer any title.
This World Cup, we talk about it more. We are on a completely different dynamic and we are looking towards the future. Winning matches like that is important, it's foundational, it remains a step in our path which is still long but which was important.
We have a team with new players who are also discovering the international level, who have responded in a context that is not easy. We had injuries, a difficult start to the match, so this victory must be savored. It will be important for the future but it is not an end in itself.
(…) It's not a title, we didn't win anything. We win an important match against a very good team, with a complicated scenario
To summarize
It was quite a feat that the players of the France team achieved on Saturday evening, seeking victory against the Blacks. But Antoine Dupont, even if he is very proud of this success, very quickly put its importance into perspective because it is a victory without a title at the end, a simple step in a journey until 2027.
