{"id":382352,"date":"2026-01-21T14:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382352\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T14:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T14:42:13","slug":"why-has-damian-penaud-been-axed-from-france-six-nations-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/382352\/","title":{"rendered":"Why has Damian Penaud been axed from France Six Nations squad?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why has Damian Penaud been axed from France Six Nations squad? <\/p>\n

, The Times<\/p>\n

Fabien Galthi\u00e9\u2019s France is beginning to resemble a prestige TV series in which you never know which actor will be killed off next. Ga\u00ebl Fickou, in his 14th season on the show, with 98 caps? Gr\u00e9gory Alldritt, the long-time lieutenant and chum of the main character Antoine Dupont? Damian Penaud, two months after he became his country\u2019s record tryscorer? <\/p>\n

The head coach has bid them adieu from his 42-man Six Nations squad. Galthi\u00e9 introduced Chekhov\u2019s gun in the autumn, dropping Alldritt from the team against the Springboks, but then made him captain for the next two matches while Dupont continued rehabilitating. When Alldritt was absent, Fickou was the man in charge. <\/p>\n

Despite their falls from skipper to skipped over, Penaud\u2019s absence will cause most jaws to fall. It wasn\u2019t quite writing on the wall \u2014 at most a doodle in a notepad \u2014 but the decision to drop Penaud in last year\u2019s Six Nations<\/a>, casting him as scapegoat (with Matthieu Jalibert) for the defeat by England at Twickenham, showed that the Bordeaux B\u00e8gles wing was not sacrosanct. <\/p>\n

\"Fabien<\/p>\n

Despite being France\u2019s record tryscorer, Penaud has been cast out by Galthi\u00e9<\/p>\n

HANNAH PETERS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

In the two games before the 26-25 defeat away to England, the only blemish in a Six Nations championship won by France, Penaud had scored nine tries for his club, and ended the season with a brace in the Champions Cup final win over Northampton Saints. A haul of 27 tries in 26 matches added to 28 in 31 the previous season, confirming Penaud as the world\u2019s most effective headless chicken. He has admitted that he needs to improve on defence, an aspect of the game that doesn\u2019t motivate him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have set times to go out for warm-ups before matches,\u201d Nans Ducuing, a former club-mate, told Le Parisien in September. \u201cWe\u2019re changed, we\u2019re warmed up, and he\u2019s playing chess on his phone, Birkenstocks on his feet. He doesn\u2019t care, he doesn\u2019t know a single tactic. At training, he\u2019s there but not really there, he sends you passes out of bounds, he just laughs\u2026 for team life, it\u2019s great, but for the coaches, you never know if he\u2019s fully present or not. But when he steps on to the pitch, he transcends himself. He\u2019s a genius.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a long wait, two tries against South Africa in November took Penaud beyond Serge Blanco\u2019s longstanding national record of 38. Using the crude, scoreboard-journalism measure of tries accrued, Penaud\u2019s returns have dropped off (eight in 16 this season would be fine for most wings). <\/p>\n

\"RUGBYU-EUR-CUP-BORDEAUX-BEGLES-NORTHAMPTON\"<\/p>\n

Both of Pollock\u2019s tries against Bordeaux were scored in areas for which Penaud was defensively responsible<\/p>\n

ROMAIN PERROCHEAU \/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

The vision of Henry Pollock scoring a chip-and-chase past him at Stade Chaban-Delmas earlier this month won\u2019t have helped his case, in opposition to his effervescent chaos in attack. There was even a sense in Bordeaux\u2019s Champions Cup win against Northampton Saints that Penaud didn\u2019t want to score, passing infield unsuccessfully rather than go for the line with a forlorn Pollock in pursuit, and on another occasion switching with Cameron Woki to give the flanker a try, rather than cross with ease. <\/p>\n

\"Louis<\/p>\n

The precociously talented Bielle-Biarrey, left, is already a prolific tryscorer, and already has 20 tries in 22 international appearances<\/p>\n

JEAN CATUFFE\/DPPI\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

The recession is pronounced compared with the continued brilliance of Louis Bielle-Biarrey. Penaud\u2019s flank counterpart registered a hat-trick against Bristol Bears at Ashton Gate on Sunday, extending his season\u2019s work to 18 tries in 17 games (after 33 in 30 in 2024-25). At 22 years old, he is already halfway towards Penaud\u2019s France record.<\/p>\n

An even younger talent, the 21-year-old Th\u00e9o Attissogbe, recently returned after a four-month absence, starting at full back and wing for Pau this month. Had Attissogbe been fit in the autumn, Penaud might have still been trapped level with Blanco, such is the esteem in which the younger man is held internationally.<\/p>\n

At 29 years old, it is too early to move on from Penaud. It is also too early to rule out Fickou from the Six Nations story, a tournament he first graced in 2013 as an 18-year-old, but his wisdom and club form have not been enough to hold back the advance of a string of exciting threequarters for the 2027 World Cup.<\/p>\n

At Racing 92, who are 11th in the Top 14, Fickou shifted to the wing in his past two league outings. He formed a grand slam-winning combination with Jonathan Danty in 2022, but it must now be time for Yoram Moefana and Nicolas Depoort\u00e8re to take their Bordeaux form into the French midfield. Kalvin Gourgues, the one-cap 20-year-old centre of Toulouse, is hugely promising too and can cover fly half and full back. Add to that two other members of the Pau nursery \u2014 Fabien Brau-Boirie, the 20-year-old centre, and Gr\u00e9goire Arfeuil, the 21-year-old wing \u2014 and Noah Nene, the 21-year-old inside centre of Stade Fran\u00e7ais.<\/p>\n

In the half backs, the debate around Jalibert and Romain Ntamack is moot for now, because the latter is set to miss the opening game due to a kidney injury. Dupont\u2019s three leading deputies at scrum half \u2014 Maxime Lucu, Nolann Le Garrec and Baptiste Jauneau \u2014 are injured, opening the door for the return of Baptiste Serin, whose last cap came on the summer tour of 2024, and Thibault Daubagna. <\/p>\n

Read more Six Nations build-up<\/p>\n

Up front, Micka\u00ebl Guillard wore No8 ahead of Alldritt against the Springboks, having impressed in New Zealand last summer. Injury ended his autumn early but he has returned for Lyon, in his usual spot of second row. Anthony Jelonch is in the running for the back of the pack, the uncapped Temo Matiu is in, and Charles Ollivon and Woki have worn No8 for their clubs this season, though most of Woki\u2019s 17 appearances for Bordeaux out of a possible 18 have come at No7. Fran\u00e7ois Cros is a welcome return in the No6 jersey, leaving Paul Boudehent as another candidate for No7. <\/p>\n

Rumours over the squad show how the strength of France\u2019s league system adds to an already formidable talent pool. Two players born in Australia, qualified via the five-year residency rule, are up for consideration: Tom Staniforth, the former Australia Under-20 lock who joined Castres in November 2020; and Malachi Hawkes, who joined Toulouse as a teenager and has been playing at tight-head prop for Provence in Pro D2. In a rare display of front-row versatility, Hawkes has also made two substitute appearances for his parent club in the Top 14 as a hooker. Staniforth is in, but Hawkes is not. <\/p>\n

France squad for 2026 Six NationsForwards: D Aldegheri, U Atonio, H Auradou, C Baille, P Boudehent, F Cros, A Fischer, T Flament, J-B Gros, M Guillard, O Jegou, A Jelohnch, M Lamothe, J Marchand, T Matiu, P Mauvaka, E Meafou, R Montagne, R Neti, C Ollivon, D Priso, T Staniforth, T Tatafu, C WokiBacks: G Arfeuil, T Attissogbe, L Bielle-Biarrey, F Brau-Boirie, R Buros, T Daubagna, N Depoort\u00e8re, G drean, A Dupont, K Gourgues, A Grandidier Nkanang, M Jalibert, Y Moefana, N Nene, T Ramos, B Serin, U Seunes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why has Damian Penaud been axed from France Six Nations squad? , The Times Fabien Galthi\u00e9\u2019s France is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-382352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}