Is the great Antoine Dupont and his team coming to Australia? This masthead understands that France, Ireland and Italy will be the three nations bound for Australia next July, if and when the long-awaited Nations Cup gets off the ground next year.
Despite the urgings of World Rugby chair Brett Robinson for the Rugby Championship and Six Nations not to stuff it up, the Nations Cup still isn’t over the line as parties haggle over details.
But schedules appear to be largely in place, with France, Ireland in Italy heading south next July and the Wallabies facing England, Scotland and Wales up north in the ‘return’ legs in November, 2026.
The French are well known for not sending their top players south in the July window and may well continue that policy, but next year’s Test comes with a twist. If the French want a dry run for the Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2027, this is it. They mightn’t necessarily care about the Nations Cup, but sending Dupont and co would make sense from a Rugby World Cup planning point of view. At least, Rugby Australia can hope. The Ireland Test will sell itself but the French avec Dupont would be a blockbuster.
The hidden Giteau Law message
RA director of high performance Peter Horne set the cat among the pigeons with his casual, “Yeah, well we never liked you anyway” dismissal of the Giteau Law this week, which created more questions than answers. Will the Wallabies now start selecting en masse? Will this have an effect on Super Rugby Pacific, one of Rugby Australia’s own assets? Why did he single out Josh Kemeny as an example of who Joe Schmidt could pick?
As with all laws and guidelines, the implementation will be the most important aspect. That said, if you were a club owner or coach in Europe or Japan, the message would be coming through loud and clear: signing a less experienced Australian no longer comes with a guarantee they won’t be called up in July, August-September or November. And RA could trigger Regulation 9 to secure releases, or at least brandish the threat of going down that path.
Josh Kemeny in action.Credit: Getty
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