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‘Rugby is a martial art’: Fabien Galtier defends the principle of friendly matches ahead of the World Cup

It’s a dress rehearsal: it’s up to all the executives to lead France to the world title at home. The Blues will face Australia on Sunday (17:45). This is the last set-up match less than two weeks before the start of the World Championship against the All Blacks on Friday, September 8th. The starting XI will consist of Antoine Dupont, Gregory Aldritt or again Julien Marchand. The typical team’s second summer outing after the match against Scotland in Saint-Étienne, where newcomer Romain Ntamak, an all-competition package, and supporter Cyril Bayle were injured.

What to worry about in view of the test against the wallaby? “There are debates going on and we hear it,” remarks tricolor coach Fabien Galtier, while former prostitute Vincent Moscato called on his show on RMC to ban these confrontations ahead of the World Cup. We are very disappointed with the injury packages, but rugby is a combat sport. You can also injure yourself while exercising or while warming up. »

“Over the past weekend against Fiji, we have risen to a level of intensity of fighting that has rarely been seen since the start of our mandate,” he continues. And yet, we managed without injuries. You need to play and prepare. “And the Blues coach will give examples from the early 1990s, when the France XV were more effective after a few run-in matches, or from the Stade Francais in 2005, which struggled after a summer without friendlies.

Like the Blues, the All Blacks will play the final warm-up game this Friday night in Twickenham against South Africa, where both teams will field their best players.

“You can’t twirl for eight weeks”

XV France performance director Thibault Giroud also justified injuries as the risks associated with running this event. “We can’t twirl on clubs for eight weeks and get players out of formaldehyde before the All Blacks,” said the head of fitness.

However, the headquarters distributed playing time among the Blues over the course of four summer games. “Few players will play more than 200 minutes,” promises Fabien Galtier, who has benched one of the twelve reservists, Sebastian Taofifenois, to avoid putting too much pressure on his last two left-back specialists. , Jean-Baptiste Gros and Reda Vardy still fit in Bayle’s absence.

Fabien Galtier unveiled on Monday his list of 33 players selected for the World Cup, as well as a list of substitutes who could be called up in case of injury. After the match against Australia, the Blues will take five days off before reconvening next weekend to check into a hotel in Rueil-Malmaison where they will be staying during this World Cup.

Source: Le Parisien

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