Galthie in no rush to sign up his coaches
FFR President Bernard Laporte was ready to offer Les Bleus’ head coach Fabien Galthie a new, extended contract if he guided France to a first Grand Slam in a decade, it was reported in December. In the end, Monsieur Le President didn’t wait for France to beat England 25-13 to make good on his offer.
A new deal through to the end of the 2027 World Cup in Australia was offered, agreed, and on Galthie’s desk for signing in the week before the decisive fifth and final match of the tournament on March 22.
There was even time for Laporte to tell the players at FFR headquarters in Marcoussis and for the news to go public before the match kicked off.
“He [Galthie] is the right person, in the right place,” Laporte told Midi Olympique shortly afterwards. “At the beginning of his mandate, I worked with him because we were in a hurry: building a new staff, integrating Shaun Edwards, choosing coaches and players with him and Raphael Ibanez.
“Putting the church back in the centre of the village was to make the French team a benchmark again – and, for that, the best in their field was needed,” Laporte went on. “William Servat for the scrum, Karim Ghezal for the touch, Thibault Giroud for performance, Laurent Labit in the three-quarters… I did it with him.
“From now on, I will leave these decisions to him. He doesn’t need me any more.”
Four days after France beat England to claim their promised Grand Slam, Galthie said the subject of contract extensions would be raised quickly.
“As soon as I have re-signed, that is to say in the days to come, this will be the subject of individual discussions [with the coaching staff],” he told reporters at the post-tournament press conference. “What are everyone’s wishes? The staff is better than it was when I took office. It has gained, like the team, in experience.”
That was in March.
It’s now July. The first Test of France’s two-match tour of Japan kicked off yesterday, and – to date – Galthie has not spoken to any of his coaches about extending their contracts.
It’s expected that team manager and noted Galthie wrangler Raphael Ibanez will agree to a new contract corresponding with that of the head coach, but the only thing we know for certain, beyond Galthie’s contract extension, is that conditioning coach Thibault Giroud will leave the national set-up to join Racing 92 when his current deal runs out.
It’s clear that the coaches want to know whether new deals will be heading their way sooner rather than later. Word is that almost all the staff are ready to extend their stay at Marcoussis beyond their current deals.
“[As of] today, there has been no discussion with us,” forwards coach Servat said in Tokyo last week. “I hope someone will tell us something soon. We have a focus on the World Cup, but it is obvious that we will have decisions to make.”
Of course, there’s no immediate rush. Everyone, to a coach, is under contract, but discussions will have to start sooner rather than later.
The danger is that the longer Galthie maintains his counsel, the more tempting – and loud – those whispers from other quarters will become. It’s no secret that attack coach Labit is on the wish list of a number of Top 14 clubs.
They’re not the only ones looking for new staff in the long term, either. A number of coaching contracts are up for renewal – or not – in 2024, and a successful international stint on a CV carries a lot of weight.
England, for one, are on the hunt for a head coach to take over from Eddie Jones. Unsurprisingly, Shaun Edwards’ name keeps popping up in speculative dispatches, and on social media. He is one coach Laporte does not want to lose, having moved so quickly and fought so hard to get him in the first place.
In an interview with La Provence,
Laporte said. “Shaun? We have to re-sign him, that’s clear.”
He added: “But … it’s up to Fabien. The decision to extend this or that member of the coaching staff does not fall to the Federation. It is up to Fabien to put together his staff. It’s not up to me to tell him to take so-and-so.”
Chances are that discussions will take place in the days and weeks after the July tour – and it’s likely to be September at the earliest before there’s any real news out of Marcoussis, which gives us an entire summer of speculation and rumours to circulate freely.