Apparently, you can change a winning team. Less than a week after winning the Rugby World Cup’s inaugural arm wrestling match against New Zealand (27-13), Fabien Galthié has opted to field a largely reshuffled line-up against Uruguay in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, northern France, on Thursday, September 14 (9 pm).
Only three of the starters from the match against the All Blacks are in the line-up again and all the key players – from captain Antoine Dupont to number 8 Charles Ollivon and winger Damian Penaud – are being rested. For all that, the team led by returnee Anthony Jelonch – named captain on his return, less than seven months after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee – is, according to the French coach, “the best French team at the moment” for this second match of the World Cup.
Galthié knows that the wealth of the French talent pool is one of the pillars of his team’s success. In four years and 40 matches, he and his staff have called on more than 80 players. And, even more than his icon, Antoine Dupont, or the stars Gregory Alldritt and Gaël Fickou – among the best in the world in their positions – other nations envy French rugby its talent incubator. “The number one asset [of the French team] is the depth of the squad,” said former Castres coach Pierre-Henry Broncan, interviewed by TF1 television, in early September. “The immensity of the selection pool is impressive.”
Now a member of Eddie Jones’s Australian staff, the French technician noted that on the island continent, they admire the Top 14, “a huge league (…), which allows young French players to play earlier and earlier and gain a lot of experience.”
Source: Le Monde
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