Fabien Galthié will have 34 players to prepare the matches of the French XV for the Six Nations Tournament

2024-01-03 20:22:11

The Top 14 clubs and the French Rugby Federation (FFR) have agreed to reduce from 42 to 34 the number of players called up by the French XV during the Six Nations Tournament gatherings, the Agency has learned France-Presse (AFP) Wednesday January 3 from a source close to the negotiations.

An amendment to the agreement concerning the provision of internationals, adopted in 2022 between the FFR and the National Rugby League (LNR), was validated by LNR on Tuesday evening, and will be validated on January 9 by the FFR, we learned ‘AFP, confirming information from the newspaper The team.

Accustomed to having a group of 42 players at each gathering, the coach of the French XV, Fabien Galthié, will have to compose during the 2024 Six Nations Tournament with 34 players at the start of the week.

On Wednesday evening, this group will be reduced to 28 players and the other six will therefore be made available to their clubs, according to the amendment seen by AFP. The week of France-Ireland (February 2), these players will be released on Tuesday evening.

Future negotiations expected

During the week of preparatory training, as well as before the matches against Italy (February 25) and Wales (March 10) which will take place on a Sunday, these six players will be replaced for the day on Thursday by six others, selected from the ten Top 14 clubs with the fewest players in the group of 34.

Each of them must come from a different club and the FFR specifies in the document that it will take care not to always request the same players on these three Thursdays.

This amendment also provides that for the summer tour in Argentina, where the XV of France will face the Pumas on July 6 and 13, the XV of France will be able to rely on a group of 42 players.

But those selected will be among those who were not or little used during the Six Nations Tournament, or who did not play in the Top 14 final on June 28.

Establishing a framework for the Six Nations Tournament and the 2024 summer tour, this amendment specifies that the FFR and the LNR have planned to resume negotiations during the first half of 2024, in order to agree on the necessary adjustments to the agreement to make international players available for the next three seasons, which will lead to the 2027 World Cup in Australia.

The World with AFP