Galthie has a rich pool of talent to pick from
France coach Fabien Galthie has hinted he could tap into a rich vein of ProD2 talent for July’s two-Test tour of Japan as he gives key internationals a summer break ahead of a long run to next year’s World Cup.
He won’t name his 42-player tour squad until after next weekend’s Top 14 semi-finals. Now, with the showpiece French final on June 24, eight days before the first Test at Toyota Stadium in Aichi, will he select players from either of the two sides heading to Stade de France.
Galthie explained his reasoning – based on his own experiences as a player – in a first interview with Midi Olympique in three months. “I know that, after a final, whether you win or lose, it takes a fortnight to recover physically and mentally,” he said.
“We aren’t going to extend any player’s season by three weeks for a single Test.”
It’s also a given that he will rest Antoine Dupont, Gregory Alldritt, Romain Ntamack, Julien Marchand, Romain Taofifenua, Francois Cros, Cyril Baille and Anthony Jelonch, players who have all earned a few weeks respite, while Pierre-Louis Barassi, Paul Willemse and Gabin Villiere will also stay at home as they recover from injury.
So we’re going to see another incubator tour mix of promising young talent and experienced players who haven’t necessarily seen much international rugby for a while.
Charles Ollivon will almost certainly return after missing most of the season with a knee injury. Virimi Vakatawa is back in the mix after a dip in form saw him drop down the pecking order. Arthur Vincent is back from a long-term injury in time for the knockout phase of the Top 14 – and may do enough to make the squad.
But what’s interesting is not the Top 14 players in the conversation, for all that the rising potential of Jordan Joseph and Matthias Haddad are mentioned in dispatches.
No, it’s the sheer scope of Galthie’s dive into the French game that is mind-blowing. The staff do not restrict themselves to the 14 teams in the French top flight.
Galthie this week namechecked ProD2 and under-20 players on his radar. The list included Oyonnax’s 24-year-old tighthead Thomas Laclayat, Mont-de-Marsan’s 22-yearold scrum-half Leo Coly, the Bayonne duo of baller 19-year-old loosehead Matis Perchaud – who has played 27 times this season, including 10 starts – and 24-year-old winger Remy Baget, as well as agegrade centres Emilien Gailleton and Louis Le Brun, and winger Enzo Reybier – who have just a handful of
“The sheer scope of Galthie’s dive into the French game is just mind-blowing”
senior games under their belts.
He also surprisingly mentioned injured centre Antoine Frisch, who’s leaving Bristol this summer for Munster – which proves the boundaries of the richly stocked French game aren’t wide enough.
None of them will necessarily have a seat on the plane. But the fact they’re in Galthie’s Matrix, is telling.
He even highlighted the benefits of the third and fourth-tier Nationale and Nationale 2 leagues, set-up as stepping stones to pro status for ambitious clubs.
“With the Nationale and now the Nationale 2, there’s a natural reservoir for incubating emerging talent,” Galthie told Midi. “A few seasons ago there was a bottleneck in access to the highest level.
“All of French rugby will benefit [from the Nationale and Nationale 2] – before, we only had the Top 14 and the Pro D2. Today, there are almost 30 extra professional clubs [in France] … it’s all a bonus.”
The irony is that the levelling down of English rugby because the falling salary cap has forced quality players to join Championship sides may be the catalyst for Eddie Jones and whoever comes after him to look more closely at the game and the players beyond the Premiership.
They could easily find it worth their while. The ProD2 is a mad, crazy league, but it is repeatedly and increasingly proving its worth to the game in France. It continues to be a shame that the Championship is so easily disregarded in England.
Last night as TRP went to press, Toulouse met La Rochelle in a repeat of last season’s final – and indeed this year’s Champions Cup Final – with a place in the semi-final at stake.
Tonight, third-placed Bordeaux host Racing 92 in sixth at Stade Chaban Delmas in the second barrage-round play-off, with the winners travelling to Nice to face Montpellier in next Saturday’s second semi-final.
“We didn’t deserve to finish in the top two with our results in the second half of the season,” head coach Christophe Urios said this week, as he questioned the attitudes of key players including Mathieu Jalibert and Woki in their loss at
Perpignan last weekend and demanded an immediate response from them.
“There will be a reckoning because otherwise we will lose in the barrage.”
In the afternoon, losing ProD2 finalists Mont-de-Marsan entertain Perpignan, who finished 13th in the Top 14 in the promotion-relegation play-off, at Stade Andre et Guy Boniface.
The hosts side have won 15 of 15 at home this season, picking up 10 try-scoring bonus points, and scoring 56 tries while conceding just 18 in the process.
But Perpignan showed last week they’re not ready to give up their hard-won Top 14 status easily.