GALTHIE: CHAMPS CAN GET BETTER
FRANCE begin their Six Nations title defence against Italy tomorrow in flying form on the pitch — but in chaos off it.
Shamed former French Rugby Federation president Bernard Laporte, suspended from duties while he fights his suspended two-year sentence on the corruption charges, was invited into camp in the week.
And Claude Atcher, chief executive of France 2023 World Cup, was sacked amid accusations of bullying.
Alexandre Martinez was yesterday named as interim president just one week after Laporte resigned.
France’s general manager Raphael Ibanez explained the move, saying: “Our mission is a purely sporting one. We invited Bernard, because France organising the World Cup is thanks to him. And that’s where the deep motivation of our players comes from. The staff — it’s him, too.”
First
Last year’s Grand
Slam champions, who have been decimated by by injuries, hand Lyon winger Ethan Dumortier his first cap in a side led by Antonio Dupont.
France will bid to be the first men’s side to successfully defend a Grand Slam and will host the 2023 World Cup.
Head coach Fabian Galthie said: “We are going to get better because our team has not yet reached the age of maturity.”
Harlequins fly-half Tommaso Allan will start for Italy, where he’s joined by Gloucester scrumhalf Stephen Varney in Rome.
But it’s an Italian who plays for a French club, Ange Capuozzo, who has been in red-hot form for Toulouse in the Top 14.
Full-back Capuozzo set up the try that sealed last season’s shock and long-awaited Six Nations win over Wales.
Dumortier (below), who won the Under-20 World Championship in 2019 with France, is the Top 14’s leading try-scorer with eight in 11 games for Lyon.