‘We want to stay sublime’: Fabien Galtier’s ambitions for the Six Nations Tournament

He comes out of a historic 2022, finished undefeated and won the first French rugby grand slam in twelve years. But France’s XV is now shifting to historic months that should lead it to the World Cup in front of its fans. The Blues, reunited from Sunday in Capbreton, Landes, will start 2023 and their Six Nations Tournament with a trip to Italy on Sunday, February 5th. The deadlines were mentioned by their coach Fabien Galtier, who was in London with his captain Antoine Dupont for a traditional media day.

How do you feel about defending your title?

FABIEN GALTY. With great joy, pleasure, happiness. We’ve been together since last night (Editor’s note: Sunday), except for Antoine and myself, who came here. The goal is to turn this selection into a team to speak the same language, to rediscover our core culture. We must solve this mission together, which is a sacred mission.

It will be a three-way tournament, including two big matches in Ireland and England. What does it change?

First of all, we are focusing on our build and this desire to be a team again with these 42 players. First there will be a match in Italy, then we will go to Dublin (February 11). With preparations in three weeks, we will have an overview of this competition. We are focused primarily on these two meetings: starting with Italy, which beat Australia at home in the autumn, won in Wales at the end of the tournament, then moving on to the world number one, which is Ireland. This is very dense content to experience.

What else does your team need to do to make progress this World Cup season?

Three years and thirty games have passed since our takeover of the French team. There with the top five of the Tournament, then four preparatory matches for this, then seven before the World Cup final, that is, sixteen or half. Therefore, there is an opportunity to continue to grow and develop. We are winning matches, but there is still work to be done.

How will you manage your team between this Six Nations Tournament for defense and the prospect of a World Championship?

We listen to them, we ask how they feel. We need these feedbacks on these sensations, they know their body better than anyone. It is important to conduct some form of audit. Today they will have ten interviews to better understand their condition. This is an important listening time which will then allow us to adjust our agenda. Then we have nine key performance indicators to achieve in training. We adjust our protocol every time, we are more honest and accurate. On the other hand, you are talking about title defense. But are we defending the title or are we going to pursue the title? This is a question that should be asked between us.

Are you sure streak of 13 wins in a row. In the case of a Grand Slam, you would have set an absolute record. What would that mean for this team?

When I hear you talk about this record, it touches me, it does something to me. But each match is so special that we prepare it as an independent part of life, immersion in the culture of the nation. After that, we leave the water and see what happened. We have a good series, we still want to live these matches intensely. We want to stay in the sublime and wonderful.

French rugby is going through a difficult period behind the scenes. Can this team let people talk about it for other reasons?

This has always been our goal. We used three words: collect, share and unite. It still revives us and even more. We feel a lot of energy, a lot of love. We just want to keep playing rugby the way we do it.