It is in a corner of the Lot countryside that, at the end of 2019, the destiny of the current French men’s rugby team takes its source. A month after the elimination of the Blues in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Japan, Fabien Galthié meets on the “land of [son] childhood “ the staff he has scrupulously chosen for a week of “team building”.
For the new coach of a XV of France in the doldrums, this “back to earth” must lead to “lay everything flat” to rebuild by jointly drafting a roadmap with a clear objective: “to become a major nation in world rugby again”.
Of which act Saturday March 19, 2022. With their victory against England (25-13), the Blues won the Six Nations Tournament for the first time in twelve years, signing in the process a grand slam (five victorious matches), the tenth in their history.
This success comes to punctuate two and a half years during which the French, led by a sparkling squadron commander, Antoine Dupont, have chained good results: the success against England was the eighth victory in a row. Above all, the XV of France now displays a serenity in the game – and outside – that it had rarely, if ever, known. The fruit of meticulous work, and of a finally favorable situation.
“We don’t work enough on high-level things”
Because it didn’t all start in Montgesty – a Lot village whose town councilor is the coach’s father. The project for the Blues of Galthié was born long before. And the former coach of Stade Français, Montpellier and Toulon has had time to refine it, his candidacy for the post of coach having been rejected three times (2007, 2011, 2015).
Appointed in 2019, he joins the team of his predecessor, Jacques Brunel, to observe the state of the troops during the World Cup. With Raphaël Ibanez, former captain of the Blues like him, alongside whom he played, Fabien Galthié then formed a tandem: to him, the technician, “the artist” – the words are by Raphaël Ibanez – the business of the field. The Landes manager takes care of the rest. “I told him, ‘don’t worry, I’ll go to the front'”exhibited Ibanez in early 2020. Accustomed to scrapping in melee, the former hooker takes on the role of ” Diplomat “capable of both oiling the wheels and banging his fist on the table.
It is he who will negotiate and get clubs to be able to count on forty-two players at each meeting, against thirty-one previously. Or the number considered necessary, according to the data accumulated by the French staff, to ensure that they can train at fifteen against fifteen, taking into account injuries and malforms.
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