ALLDRITT TAKES OVER FROM DUPONT AS FRANCE CAPTAIN
NUMBER eight Gregory Alldritt will captain France in the Six Nations Championship after taking over from Antoine Dupont, who will miss the tournament to focus on the French Sevens side that competes at the Paris Olympic Games later this year.
Coach Fabien Galthie has named six uncapped players as France enter a new World Cup cycle having had the bitter disappointment of losing to eventual champions South Africa in the quarter-finals on home soil last year.
Centre Nicolas Depoortere, back row Esteban Abadie, locks Matthias Halagahu and Emmanuel Meafou, out-half Antoine Gibert and scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec could all debut in the Six Nations.
Meafou was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, but has been playing for Toulouse since 2019 and trained with France last year, though he has only now become eligible to play for the national team.
France open their Six Nations campaign against Ireland in Marseille on February 2.
Meanwhile, Jamie George has been told to put his own stamp on captaincy after being entrusted to lead a revamped England squad into the the championship.
The promotion capped a special day for the 33-year-old having also signed a new two-year deal with Saracens that is to be accompanied by a central contract with the Rugby Football Union.As undisputed first choice hooker, as well as an influential player in the English game, George was chosen ahead of nearest rivals Ellis Genge and Maro Itoje.
An element of the appointment process was instigated by Belgium manager and former Manchester City defender Vincent Kompany and now that he has risen to the top, Steve Borthwick insists George must lead in his own image.
‘I was asked by somebody ‘have you given Jamie, any advice?”’
said head coach Borthwick, who captained England 21 times as a second-row.
‘The one thing I said is: “I want you to lead as you.” And that one year, many many years from now, you will reflect and want to say you led as you.
‘Prior to the World Cup we did this study. We will do something similar again in the near future. It was a network analysis, for want of a better term. It was actually an idea given to me by Vincent Kompany.
‘You basically give the players a series of questions. And then put the top three players you turn to in this situation.
‘What it effectively produces is this network of how everybody connects and who connects with who the most. And the number of people who connected with Jamie George is immense.’