{"id":472171,"date":"2026-03-12T21:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/472171\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:17:07","slug":"wherefore-art-thou-france-look-to-restore-identity-with-outing-to-romeo-and-juliet-france-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/472171\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Wherefore art thou?\u2019: France look to restore identity with outing to Romeo and Juliet | France rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

A night at the opera may not be to every Frenchman\u2019s taste<\/a> these days, but for Fabien Galthi\u00e9 the outing will have been an integral part of his team\u2019s Six Nations finale preparations.<\/p>\n

Two evenings out from their clash against England, Les Bleus were set to leave their training camp to watch rehearsals for a performance of the ballet Romeo and Juliet at the Op\u00e9ra Garnier in central Paris. \u201cIt\u2019s important for us to take a step back,\u201d the head coach explained. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be meeting the lead dancers, watching them at work, speaking to them, and experiencing that legendary venue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galthi\u00e9 also highlighted the need for a change of scenery after seven weeks holed up in the sleepy village of Marcoussis. While he often brings in speakers from other disciplines to the training camp (for example, the former Paris Opera Ballet \u00e9toile Marie-Agn\u00e8s Gillot gave a presentation to the squad in 2024), it\u2019s rare for the head coach to take his players on a trip in to town.<\/p>\n

The former scrum-half evidently saw a need to shake things up. Until last weekend, France were relatively undisturbed as they appeared to be marching towards an undefeated campaign. After shipping 50 points in Edinburgh<\/a> and letting the grand slam slip away again, the team suddenly came under renewed criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might have been sunny at Murrayfield,\u201d L\u2019\u00c9quipe\u2019s analysis read the following day, \u201cbut the French team caught a bad cold, having been eaten up in terms of intensity and apathetic in defence\u201d. Midi Olympique, meanwhile, simply ran with \u201cLa Claque\u201d, the slap in the face, as their front-page headline.<\/p>\n

The verdict among former players was also damning. In his L\u2019\u00c9quipe column this week, Jean-Baptiste \u00c9lissalde analysed what he saw as \u201cthe 22 worst minutes of the Galthi\u00e9 era\u201d at the start of the second half in Scotland. Speaking on radio channel RMC, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Michalak, now a coach at Racing 92, lamented France\u2019s porous defence and suggested that the team may have been too \u201cmentally relaxed\u201d in their approach to the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are human beings,\u201d pleaded Galthi\u00e9 when he faced the press at his team announcement on Thursday morning. The head coach was notably asked about Antoine Dupont\u2019s struggles at Murrayfield, with the captain having been singled out for criticism after the match. \u201cHe\u2019s an exceptional player. Sometimes there can be difficult moments, but it\u2019s nothing serious. It\u2019s all a part of the journey leading up to Saturday\u2019s match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antoine Dupont endured a difficult game against Scotland. Photograph: Andrew Milligan\/PA<\/p>\n

Neither England\u2019s defeat against Italy<\/a> nor the end of France\u2019s grand slam hopes have taken any of the bite out of Le Crunch. \u201cWe\u2019ll be facing a wounded animal,\u201d warned centre Pierre-Louis Barassi, who starts on Saturday as a result of Nicolas Depoort\u00e8re\u2019s shoulder injury. \u201cThey\u2019ll go all-out to try to finish on a high by denying us the title.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re even more dangerous now,\u201d concurred Emmanuel Meafou, who has been paired with Thibaud Flament in the second row.<\/p>\n

\u201cA former coach once told me that an injured player can cause more damage than a fit one,\u201d forwards coach William Servat said. \u201cWhen a person feels like they\u2019re in danger, they can do extraordinary things. I think that\u2019s what will motivate both England and ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps we were a bit too comfortable in our preparations,\u201d added Servat when asked about the defeat in Scotland. \u201cWhat\u2019s certain is that we are trying to be less comfortable in the way we approach this match.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideFrance team v EnglandShow<\/p>\n

Thomas Ramos; Th\u00e9o Attissogbe, Pierre-Louis Barassi, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Dupont (capt); Charles Ollivon, Temo Matiu, Fran\u00e7ois Cros; Emmanuel Meafou, Thibaud Flament; Dorian Aldegheri, Julien Marchand, Jean-Baptiste Gros<\/p>\n

Replacements: Peato Mauvaka, Rodrigue Neti, Demba Bamba, Hugo Auradou, Micka\u00ebl Guillard, Joshua Brennan, Baptiste Serin, \u00c9milien Gailleton<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t dwell on the result,\u201d Galthi\u00e9 said of the debacle in Edinburgh. \u201cI don\u2019t regret any of the choices we\u2019ve made, they\u2019re carefully thought out, we have the expertise for it and that\u2019s how we operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oscar J\u00e9gou\u2019s four-week ban for an eye gouge and Anthony Jelonch\u2019s hamstring injury have dictated the changes made in the pack. Former captain Charles Ollivon, who was absent for the 2022 and 2025 campaigns, will be looking to win the first Six Nations<\/a> title of his career from No 8.<\/p>\n

Bordeaux\u2019s back-row Temo Matiu, meanwhile, has been thrown into the starting XV for his first cap on the openside. \u201cHe has power, speed, and dexterity,\u201d Galthi\u00e9 said of the 24-year-old. \u201cIt\u2019s also a nod to the past, as I was on the pitch when his father, Legi, earned his first cap for France against Wales.\u201d<\/p>\n

In any case, France\u2019s head coach will hope his team can get the choreography right this time round in Saturday\u2019s final act in Paris. As staff and players alike pointed out over the week, all was not lost in Scotland. A bonus-point victory over the XV de la Rose would all-but guarantee France their first back-to-back titles in two decades.<\/p>\n

Whether or not the players take any inspiration from their cultural outing on Thursday evening, avenging last year\u2019s defeat at Twickenham<\/a> would go some way towards reassuring fans and the press in this season\u2019s curtain call at the Stade de France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A night at the opera may not be to every Frenchman\u2019s taste these days, but for Fabien Galthi\u00e9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-472171","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\/472171","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=472171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}