Fabien Galthie rejects 'unwarranted accusation' he breached bubble before Covid outbreak

France head coach Fabien Galthie before the Guinness Six Nations match at the Aviva Stadium

France head coach Fabien Galthie has hit back at claims he breached the Six Nations health bubble in the week leading up to the Covid-19 outbreak in camp that forced the cancellation of Scotland's trip to Paris this weekend.

But the scale of the fallout from the health crisis remains unknown - not least in already strained relations between the union and Top 14 clubs.

As FFR President Bernard Laporte begins a Ministry of Sport-mandated investigation into the latest coronavirus outbreak among a France national rugby team, Galthie was forced to fight off reports that he had "repeatedly broken the walls of the bubble" surrounding France rugby headquarters at Marcoussis.

"All my actions comply with the health protocol," Galthie told L'Equipe this week. "I do not understand these unwarranted accusations."

The claims - and Galthie's defence of his actions - came after FFR vice-president, and the squad's Covid manager, Serge Simon had told Midi Olympique the identity of "patient zero" had been discovered. "It's the physical trainer," he was quoted as saying early this week.

According to reports in France, however, Simon's insistence sparked anger among players and staff at Marcoussis.

Meanwhile, reports were starting to circulate that Galthie had breached the Marcoussis health bubble a number of times in the week leading up to the match against Ireland in Dublin, while at the same time instructing his players and staff to remain in the confines of the camp.

In its statement confirming the first positive test last week, the FFR had also revealed Galthie had returned a "suspicious" result and would isolate pending a further test. Less than 24 hours later it was confirmed that he, too, had tested positive for Covid-19.

By the end of the week, coaches William Servat and Karim Ghezal had also returned positive tests, along with scrum-half Antoine Dupont, winger Gabin Villiere, prop Mohamed Haouas and centre Arthur Vincent.

Five more positive tests among the playing group were reported on Monday, and finally - after two days without any positive results - on Thursday, one more case, said to be Uini Atonio, was reported after Les Bleus had resumed group training.

In total, 12 players and five members of staff have tested positive for Covid-19, while all those at group training on Wednesday are now considered contact cases. Under those circumstances, it was inevitable the Scotland game would be called off.

Despite Simon's apparent certainty a day earlier, an FFR official told RMC sport on Tuesday: "We are trying to trace the origins of the contamination."

By this time, France's Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu had ordered Laporte to investigate the cause of the outbreak - the fourth in French national rugby ranks following the women's squad, the under-20s and the France 7s squad. The latter is still considered a possible source of the outbreak in the Six Nations squad after combined training ahead of the match against Ireland.

Laporte, meanwhile, has said he "hopes no fault has been committed" as he begins his investigation.

"Unfortunately we see that the bubble is not foolproof," he said on France Info on Thursday morning "It's always difficult to know the origin. I would like to know if someone was at fault. There is a protocol which is very strict - when the President of the Republic is contaminated, it shows that the virus is difficult to control.

"Has a fault been committed? I hope not. To my knowledge there is none. I'm the first in line who wants to know the truth."

But he refused to be drawn on possible sanctions. "We're not there yet. I don't want to talk about things I don't know."

The Sports Minister expects her report next week. What happens after that remains to be seen.