Grégory Alldritt captain, Emmanuel Meafou, Antoine Gibert and Nolann Le Garrec called into the group of 34

Fabien Galthié unveiled a list of 34 players on Wednesday, ahead of the first match of the Tournament, against Ireland, on February 2 in Marseille.

No revolution, but change in continuity. Three months after the failure of the World Cup, relatively few new faces appeared in the first group for the Six Nations Tournament that coach Fabien Galthié announced on Wednesday, January 17, and of which Antoine Dupont is notably absent. In total, six novices nevertheless made their first entry into this group: Meafou, Halagahu, Abadie, Le Garrec, Gibert and Depoortère.

Restart the machine but without completely rebuilding it. Despite the elimination in the quarter-finals against South Africa (29-28), most of the World Cup players were brought back by the French staff. Alongside Fabien Galthié, Patrick Arlettaz (attack) and Laurent Sempéré (conquest) succeeded Laurent Labit and Karim Ghezal, who left for the Stade français. If most of the Blues of the fall have been summoned, the most famous of them, Antoine Dupont, will not be at the reception of the XV of Clover. But this had been heard for several weeks, the French rugby star skipping the Tournament in order to familiarize himself with rugby sevens, in the hope of competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In his absence, the armband of captain falls to Gregory Alldritt.

Also expected is the call-up of Emmanuel Meafou, the colossus of Australian origin from Stade Toulouse (145 kg, 2.03 m), and now eligible for the French team. It is an understatement to say that the Blues management relies heavily on its power to counter the Irish percussion force. Behind, the absence of Dupont opens a door for young scrum half Nolann Le Garrec (21), very successful with Racing 92 since the start of the season, even if Maxime Lucu should start at the hinge with his Bordeaux teammate -Bègles Matthieu Jalibert.

Note that the French management also summoned the opener Antoine Gibert, to have the hinge of Racing at the start of the Tournament. Without Dupont or Romain Ntamack, still convalescing, the Blues will therefore approach this Tournament with a completely new hinge.

Back lines with a taste of Bordeaux

The “galactic” attack line of the Gironde club will be well represented among the 34, in which center Nicolas Depoortère, under-20 world champion, was preferred to Arthur Vincent or Gabin Villière.

Finally, between the unavailability of Thibaud Flament, injured in one foot since December, and the legal setbacks of Bastien Chalureau, the second line, in addition to Meafou’s appeal, was one of the big questions on this list. If Romain Taofifenua reversed his decision to retire internationally, we had to expect to see a player in this position who was not from the World Cup. Paul Gabrillagues will thus make his return to the group, five years after his last stint in Blue. He will be accompanied, up front, by two Toulouse players: second row Matthias Halagahu and third row Esteban Abadie.