Fabien Galthié unveiled his first post-World Cup list with several new additions.
We left the Blues a few months ago following a defeat in the quarter-final of the Rugby World Cup against South Africa. Three months later, the French XV is back for the 2024 6 Nations tournament. For their return to competition, the Blues will face Ireland on February 2 at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille. A shock which will occur in particular without Antoine Dupont since the captain of the XV of France has decided to put aside the selection to be able to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympics with the rugby 7s team.
Several newcomers join the group for the kick-off of this 6 Nations. Emmanuel Meafou (25 years old), naturalized French on November 9, is present in the list and will certainly take the place of Thibaud Flament. The number 9 of Racing 92 Nolann Le Garrec, will be Maxime Lucu’s understudy and will be accompanied by his teammate at Racing, the fly half Antoine Gibert. Two other newcomers were selected with second row Matthias Halagahu (Toulon) and third Esteban Abadie (Brive).
Note also that Fabien Galthié has decided to appoint Grégory Alldritt as the new captain of the XV of France in place of Charles Ollivon.