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Anthony Jelonch withdraws from France squad with veteran called up

France's number eight Gregory Alldritt (L) and France's flanker Anthony Jelonch (C) applauds the crowd after the France 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final match between France and South Africa at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, on October 15, 2023. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP) (Photo by ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images)

Toulouse back-row Anthony Jelonch has withdrawn from the France squad with less than two weeks to go until they get their Guinness Six Nations campaign underway against Wales in Paris.

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France have given no indication as to why the 28-year-old will not join the 42-player squad at their Marcoussis base. The announcement comes a day after Jelonch started for the reigning Investec Champions Cup winners in their 80-12 dismantling of Leicester Tigers at the Stade Ernest-Wallon, playing every minute of the victory.

Jelonch has been replaced in Fabien Galthie’s squad by Racing 92 lock Romain Taofifenua in a bizarre series of events. The 53-cap lock was declared injured on Sunday due to a knee injury sustained against the Stormers in the Champions Cup, and was replaced by Lyon’s Mickaël Guillard. His absence was shortlived, however, with the 34-year-old coming in to replace Jelonch.

An injury would be another cruel twist in a luckless couple of years for the Toulouse star, who has suffered two serious ACL injuries since 2023.

Fixture
Six Nations
France
43 - 0
Full-time
Wales
All Stats and Data

Just weeks after returning from his second ACL injury, Jelonch was included in France’s squad for the Autumn Nations Series, but did not feature as Les Bleus registered wins over Japan, the All Blacks and Argentina.

Galthie’s side will provide the curtain raiser for this year’s Championship when they host Wales at the Stade de France, with a trip to Twickenham to face England in round two.

Updated France Six Nations squad:
Forwards
Esteban Abadie
Dorian Aldegheri
Gregory Alldritt
Uini Atonio
Hugo Auradou
Cyril Baille
Giorgi Beria
Paul Boudehent
Joshua Brennan
Georges-Henri Colombe
Francois Cros
Thibaud Flament
Marko Gazzotti
Jean-Baptiste Gros
Mickael Guillard
Matthias Halagahu
Oscar Jegou
Maxime Lamothe
Julien Marchand
Peato Mauvaka
Emmanuel Meafou
Dany Priso
Rabah Slimani
Romain Taofifenua

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Backs
Theo Attissogbe
Pierre-Louis Barassi
Leo Barre
Louis Bielle-Biarrey
Nicolas Depoortere
Gael Drean
Antoine Dupont
Antoine Frisch
Emilien Gailleton
Mattieu Jalibert
Nolann Le Garrec
Maxime Lucu
Yoram Moefana
Noah Nene
Romain Ntamack
Damian Penaud
Thomas Ramos
Gabin Villiere

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Comments

2 Comments
M
Mark 21 days ago

Now that is what you call a squad!!

J
Jonathan Henault 20 days ago

Does not make a victory, but yes, when your saw half of them playing this weekend, smells like... Challenging?

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T
Tom 1 hour ago
How the England firm of 'Smith & Smith' toppled France

France played badly, England were much improved. If we can back it up then I'll get excited... But as you say France "should" have won. Although England were the better side in the second half and it's been a long time since England's second half performance was better than the opposition.


There were a few performances to make me optimistic:


Tom Curry - looks back to his best, between him and Underhill we have two exceptional flankers


Ben Earl - also looks to be getting back into some form, carried well


Tom Willis - gave more balance to the back row, finally we've found a proper test level number 8


Ollie Chessum - always been a skilled backrower and great lineout option but he looked much more physical and got really stuck in


Fin Smith - first half display was a struggle due to lack of experience as Borthwick has given him no opportunities, but he was so composed in the second half and made so many good calls with a balanced range of kicking passing and taking it to the line.


Henry Slade - he's struggled in a team playing a reductive gameplan but demonstrated that he's a classy operator in a team prepared to move the ball


All in all I really hope England gain some confidence and back themselves in the next match with ball in hand. I'm so sick of seeing the sort of wasteful grubber kicks that Lawrence put in which England have used far too much and with a total combined net meterage gain in the last few years of minus 1 million meters.

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