William Servat : « le réservoir français est en pleine progression »
Alors que le nouveau cycle en vue de la prochaine Coupe du Monde de Rugby en 2027 en Australie se lance lentement, Fabien Galthié et son staff veut y aller sûrement. A Marcoussis du 4 au 7 décembre, les nouveaux maîtres du XV de France se sont retrouvés d’abord pour s’aligner sur leur manière d’entraîner.
La deuxième grande étape sera une première liste de 42 noms – si l’engagement pris avec la Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) n’est pas remis en cause d’ici là – qui sera dévoilée vers la mi-décembre en vue de préparer le Tournoi des Six Nations avec un premier match le 2 février 2024.
Invité à s’exprimer devant la presse, William Servat, entraîneur adjoint en charge de la mêlée, un de ceux qui a rempilé après la Coupe du Monde de Rugby 2023 arrêtée abruptement en quart de finale, a commencé à lever le voile sur le futur visage du XV de France. Un visage qui sera marqué par une expérience certaine mais aussi une floppée de nouveaux venus.
L’âge ne doit pas être un critère
Déjà, il pourra compter sur deux valeurs sûres qui sont revenues sur leur décision de mettre un terme à leur carrière internationale, le pilier droit Uini Atonio et le deuxième-ligne Romain Taofifenua. La trentaine passée – 33 ans chacun – certains pensaient sans doute qu’à 37 ans, on ne disputait plus de Coupe du Monde. Or, lors de la dernière édition, le joueur le plus âgé avait 39 ans, c’était le troisième-ligne de la Namibie, Pieter-Jan van Lill.
« Que Uini Atonio continue, c’est une très bonne chose pour lui et pour nous », a confié William Servat. « Pour être tout à fait honnête, j’en avais discuté avec lui pendant la Coupe du monde et je l’ai eu plusieurs fois au téléphone après.
« Les joueurs peuvent parfois se poser des questions sur leur avenir. Moi, quand j’ai arrêté, je n’ai pas forcément eu ces discussions-là avec mes coaches. Et là, c’était bien d’échanger, il faut se poser les bonnes questions par rapport à sa carrière.
« De temps en temps, en France, on a cette idée qu’à partir d’un certain âge, on n’est plus dans la culture du haut niveau. Alors que si on veut y rester et qu’on continue à s’entraîner pour, c’est tout à fait possible. On se rend compte que la dernière équipe championne du monde a beaucoup de joueurs de cet âge-là. »
Un œil sur les jeunes
Alors que la génération des Bleuets champions du monde pour la troisième fois consécutive en juillet 2023 sera mûre pour taper à la porte du XV de France, le staff ne cache pas qu’il commence à s’intéresser de très près aux futures pépites du rugby français.
D’ailleurs, symboliquement, c’est avec les U20 Développement que Fabien Galthié a souhaité mener son tout premier entraînement avec son staff remanié mardi 5 décembre à Marcoussis.
« Il y a beaucoup de jeunes qui font de belles parties depuis un petit moment, qui sont en train de monter et qui viennent certainement taper un petit peu à la porte des grandes équipes », confirme William Servat.
« On n’est pas encore rentré dans la configuration de sélectionner des joueurs aujourd’hui. Bien sûr qu’on a des discussions, on commence un peu à en parler. La semaine prochaine on aura notre première réunion réelle d’organisation, de voir un peu qu’elle va être le choix sur nos joueurs sélectionnés. On commencera notre première réunion à échanger, à se convaincre parce qu’on a besoin de se convaincre, on a besoin d’avoir des certitudes aussi sur nos choix, nos convictions, savoir un peu dans quelle direction on veut aller.
« Bien évidemment qu’on évoquera le nom de Léo Barré, mais comme on évoquera le nom de nombreux jeunes qui aujourd’hui font plus que postuler dans leurs clubs, sont devenus des titulaires de leurs clubs et sont des joueurs qui aujourd’hui sont importants pour l’avenir de l’équipe de France.
« C’est une bien belle chose que d’avoir de jeunes joueurs comme ça qui puissent porter haut les couleurs de leurs clubs. Ça veut dire que le vivier français, le réservoir français est en pleine progression. Et quand on voit tous les jeunes qui émergent, on se dit que les clubs travaillent très bien et c’est une très bonne chose pour le XV de France. »
Comments on RugbyPass
If he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
2 Go to commentsIt was so boring
1 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
27 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
160 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
53 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
10 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
27 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
10 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
10 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
5 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
2 Go to commentsThe manipulative and cynical Erasmus….
10 Go to commentsWe see you World Rugby….we see you🤡😏
53 Go to commentsBoks are lucky to have a player of the calibre of PSDT in their ranks😍
7 Go to commentsI really like what the boks have done with bringing Vermeulen into their coaching setup. Perhaps they would have gone to france anyway, but Lawes and Farrell could at least have been offered assistant coaching roles. Lawes could probably aptly fill the brief (breakdown, contact skills, and handling) just given to Strawbridge; and Farrell could be a pretty good like for like replacement for Sinfield when he leaves. I probably wouldn’t want them in the national team set up just yet, but it would be good to see strings pulled to either get May, Youngs, Cole, & Care player-coaching roles in the premiership, or to move them into the under 20s coaching staff.
3 Go to commentsSo spiteful that the Springboks won again, they just had to change the laws so that they would stand a chance.
53 Go to commentsWhy would Eben lie? The guy has achieved so much. He saw it as arrogance. Any normal person who plays against the ABs year in and year out would have the same thoughts. Why even talk about the final when you have the biggest game of your lives next week in a stage you have never gotten passed? Rugly is simple in SA. Have fun but the most important thing is respect. I’m not buying any of this misinterpreted nonsense. Eben isn’t English, but no one during that interview was asking what did he say? He's speaking and therefore his understanding is perfectly fine. It was an arrogant thing to say, esp for a team that has never been to a final, never mind a semi. You guys up north can interpret it in a different way if you wish, maybe that s why you don’t win the biggest tournaments.
160 Go to comments> with Sky TV in New Zealand saying it has seen an 11 per cent lift in overall viewership this year. It’s easy for these kiwi “journalists” to throw around meaningless numbers to make it seem that things are improving, but if you look at the stats behind this 11 percent it says that after 10 rounds of rugby there is only a paltry 160k cumulative viewers in total.. That is on average 16k viewers watching a single round of Super Rugby. I very much doubt any of the other numbers that Gregor so proudly “reports” on.
38 Go to comments