Fabien Galthié: Playing outside Paris will continue to develop the relationship with the French people

France Head Coach, Fabien Galthie, seen ahead of the Rugby World Cup 2023 quarter final. Pic: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire.

A cancelled flight from Paris to Dublin may have been down to Storm Isha but Fabien Galthie and Gregory Alldritt’s failure to attend last Monday’s Guinness Six Nations launch, but it was strangely in keeping with the sense of disruption enveloping France ahead of the 2024 championship.

A missed flight for pre-tournament media obligations is one thing. 

Moving out of Paris and their Stade de France home for the campaign is another yet having to do without captain and talisman Antoine Dupont, well that is an absence which puts the other setbacks into some perspective.

Marseille’s Stade Velodrome will stage Ireland’s meeting with France next Friday night, Les Bleus’ first outing since their heartbreaking World Cup quarter-final defeat to eventual champions South Africa last October.

Aldritt, the La Rochelle back-rower named last week as Dupont’s successor while the mercurial Toulouse scrum-half pursues his Olympic ambitions with the French sevens, is also set lead his side out in Lille, against Italy on February 25, and Lyon, when France bring down the curtain on the championship with a Super Saturday finale against England on March 16.

Taking the show on the road as their home stadium is adapted for this summer’s Paris Olympics is not new for Galthie’s squad, who played away from the capital during their home World Cup last autumn and in the warm-up Tests which preceded the tournament.

Yet for the Six Nations, a competition where tradition and familiarity are such important components there will be a feeling of upheaval, never mind a first championship since 2019 without Dupont. 

Not unexpectedly, neither Galthie nor Aldritt admitted as much, “Of course we’ll miss Paris, Stade de France the same,” Alldritt said. 

“We’ve made memories there. We’re also really happy to play around the country. To be back with our fans, like we did during the World Cup.” 

Addressing Dupont’s absence, Galthie added: "Antoine’s idea of playing in the Olympics has been in the pipeline for two years,” the head coach said. “A project with the FFR and his club. We’re not surprised by it.

“He won’t be in the competition, it was planned. Maxime Lucu and Nolann Le Garrec are the two scrum-halves in the France squad.

“Antoine Dupont is a star of the French team, like Greg and many other players are, they have obtained a celebrity. Playing outside Paris, will continue to develop the relationship with the French people.” 

Last weekend’s Champions Cup pool games have further denied Galthie the services of powerhouse forwards, back-rower Anthony Jelonch and newly-qualified Australian-born lock Emmanuel Meafou after both sustained serious injuries in Toulouse’s win over Bath.

That will add to Galthie’s unease, if only vocalised last Monday for public consumption, ahead of next Friday’s clash with the Irish, of whom he said: “They’re second in the world, even if they lost in the quarter-finals. They’ve lost one match in two years. You just have to look at their record over the two years. They’re a formidable, amazing team. We’ll open the tournament in Marseille. It has a fervour, Mediterannean. It’s a stadium that the French team love.” 

Galthie’s counterpart Andy Farrell, meanwhile, could only see difficulties ahead when asked about France’s perceived issues and agreed Ireland could not have asked for a more difficult start to their title defence.

"No, if you look at French rugby at this moment, it's booming, isn't it?” Farrell said. “Not just the players on the pitch but the crowd and everything that happened at the World Cup, etc., it's booming.

“You talk about Dupont but look at the players they have. I know that anyone can see he's a world-class player but look at what they have in those Top 14 clubs and there's talent everywhere."