The titular XV, who faced Italy in Rome, was renewed for the trip to Dublin, where the Blues challenge Ireland on the second day of the Six Nations Tournament, Saturday February 11. Among them, the “new kid” Ethan Dumortier.
The XV of France plays its second match of the Six Nations Tournament on Saturday February 11, against Ireland. Coach Fabien Galthié has made no changes to the team that beat Italy last weekend in Rome. Lyon winger Ethan Dumortier, 22, will therefore play for the second time in the blue jersey. On the eve of this trip to Dublin, he confided in Fanny Lechevestrier.
franceinfo: Were there things that surprised you in this first international match?
Ethan Dumortier: I was nevertheless quickly surprised by the intensity of the game offered by the Italian team and ours. It’s something I was told about. But as long as we haven’t experienced it, it’s complicated to realize. Now I know what to expect. I think it’s going to be on another level again this Saturday. I prepared myself physically, I feel good, I rested well. I think that with the whole team, we have prepared as well as possible, so we will do our best to win again this weekend.
“For me, the objective in this group is to bring what I know how to do, my speed, the qualities that I have and also to bring, I think, a bit of my good humor and my way of ‘be.”
Ethan Dumortierat franceinfo
We know the Irish game, we have faced them several times. We know where they are good, we know where we are good. So we worked on their weak points. We also worked a lot on our own and we also supported our strengths so that it goes like the last three times against Ireland, where we came out with the victory. The objective for us is to try to reiterate to continue as it should in this Six Nations Tournament.
You were world champion under 20. Did you expect this selection for the France team to happen so quickly?
No, honestly, I don’t know if we can expect that. In my case, I did not necessarily expect it. We always think about it in the back of our minds. I think that all the French players who want to play at the best level also have the XV of France in mind. We’ll see if I can perform well, even better than what I did, if I have the chance to play other matches.
“We also think of the World Cup which comes to France just after. The objective is to build a block, this group which will participate in the World Cup.”
Ethan Dumortierat franceinfo
Personally, I still don’t have any certainty. So I’m going to take the stages one after the other and we’ll see if, in a few months, it gives me a chance or a small ticket for the World Cup. We’re not there yet.
IRugby, is it a sport that you discovered by chance? Were you more into football?
In fact, when I was young, I did a bit of all the sports. I played a lot of team sports: basketball, football, rugby. In the end, I tried rugby a bit like that, by chance, to go and play with friends. And because my grandfather played there, he forced my hand a little bit. He absolutely wanted me to try. I tried and here it is.
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I think sport helped me a lot to build as a teenager and to know a bit about where I wanted to go, my values and what I wanted to do in life. It helped me a lot. I had a very long time struggling to know academically what I wanted to do later. And besides, it’s impossible for me today to know what I would do if I didn’t play rugby. So for now, I’m enjoying it and that’s it. It is a pleasure today to make my passion my job.
Can we cut when we are a top athlete, find moments for ourselves outside of sport?
Yes, you can cut, you have to know. It’s important for a player to be able to relax a little mentally because casually, there are a lot of good sides of course in sport, but there is also the constant questioning, the fact that when we sign a contract, we sign a contract for two or three years and suddenly, we don’t know where we will be in two or three years. We don’t know how it will turn out. We don’t know if injuries will damage the path a little. I think those are things that everyone thinks about. These are not things that weigh because you don’t play sports and tell yourself if I get hurt, it stops. We play sports by saying which title I want to aim for or I want to play.
What we can wish for. It is to be winner of this Six Nations Tournament and to hope that there will be a good result at the key to the World Cup. I think that’s what you can wish for me and everyone else.