It has become the question that torments hexagonal rugby, but that this XV of France once again allows him to ask aloud. Eleven years after their last coronation, the Blues embark with gusto in a Six Nations Tournament where the trip Saturday (3:15 p.m.) to Italy, which has not won a match in the competition since 2015, must serve as a warm-up before a more robust program.
After a nightmarish decade, marked by many setbacks, a few jumps but never really anything very exciting in the long term, France has regained momentum in the wake of the enthronement of Fabien Galthié at its head after the 2019 World Cup. . “Season 1”, as the staff likes to call it, was marked by a second place in the Tournament – won by England on a point average – successes over all the big nations and only two losses, in Scotland (28-17) and Twickenham (22-19, ap) with a reserve team in the final of the Nations Cup. Games, executives who assert themselves and matches whose actions we finally take pleasure in reviewing. What to enrich the prize list?
“France has everything it takes to beat everyone in this Tournament,” judges the former Italian three-quarter and Stade Français player Mirco Bergamasco. There is the state of mind, which is very important, but also human resources. A player like Antoine Dupont, I can’t think of any better than him at his post. Even elsewhere, you have the impression that if you hurt a holder, there is an equally good one who arrives and with in addition the desire to impose himself in the starting XV. “
Two difficult trips on the program
Sign that the Blues worry? The way his opponents rushed to shower them with praise in the days leading up to the Tournament. “France has made enormous efforts to change. They now have a stable group with world-class players, “said Welsh coach Wayne Pivac, whose men were subjected to the law of the XV of France twice in 2020.” They are very dangerous and have managed to develop a form continuity. I expect them to be even more dangerous this year, ”said his Irish alter ego, Andy Farrell.
Odd year requires, it is precisely on the lawn of the XV of Clover in a week, where the Blues have not won since 2011, and in England in March that this Tournament will probably be played for Charles Ollivon and his partners. Complicated trips, but that the health constraints linked to the Covid-19 epidemic will facilitate by emptying the Aviva Stadium and Twickenham of its supporters. “I’m not there, blows the French captain, questioned this Friday on the disappointment that would represent a new year without a title. Thinking about the final victory, maybe we have it in the head. But today, we are focused on Italy. »The first step in a historic faultless process?
Article original de: www.leparisien.fr
