The Crunch is Saturday! To challenge the English at the Stade de France, for the last match of the 2022 Six Nations Tournament, the XV of France will have all its vital forces. For his 40th selection, Antoine Dupont will again be the captain of the Blues, accompanied at the hinge by his Toulouse teammate Romain Ntamack.
The pack is also largely the one that started all the matches of the Tournament, with the first line Baille-Marchand-Atonio, the second line Woki-Willemse and the third lines Jelonch and Alldritt. François Cros also starts his 4th consecutive game as a starter.
Behind, it is also the standard three-quarter line that Galthié aligns. Fickou and Jaminet will play their fifth game in a row, and Villière, Penaud and Danty, who have just missed one game each through injury or Covid, are also starters.
For this match with very high stakes, against the English with whom the rivalry is historic, the XV of France has slightly modified its preparation this week, with training with less impact. “The goal was to arrive in even better shape than the previous match, and that will be the case,” assured Galthié.
“We will be ready to respond” to Eddie Jones, launches Galthié
“We wanted to be in this position in the last game (to play the Grand Slam), we did everything to be there, but you have to be humble, stay in your place, we have a game to play”, warned Fabien Galthié, before reacting to the statements of England coach Eddie Jones who promises to “bring back a good victory of France” and “to extinguish Antoine Dupont”. “We hear, we listen to our opponents, replied the French coach. It contributes to our preparatory work. The date is Saturday night. We will be ready to respond”.
The Blues leave Marcoussis this Thursday to settle in a Parisian hotel, before the captain’s last training at the Stade de France on Friday, and the big game on Saturday at 9 p.m.
The composition of the XV of France : Jaminet – Penaud, Danty, Fickou, Villière – (o) Ntamack, (m) Dupont (cap.) – Jelonch, Alldritt, Cros – Willemse, Woki – Atonio, Marchand, Baille. Replacements: Mauvaka, Gros, Haouas, Flament, Taofifenua, Cretin, Lucu, Ramos.