Feleu retains France captaincy amid Ratier rebuild

France’s new head coach François Ratier has confirmed that Manae Feleu will take sole captaincy of the national team after his first training camp.

The 26-year-old lock forward held the position alongside Marine Ménanger at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England under the previous regime.

For his first training camp since he took the reins from Gaëlle Mignot and David Ortiz, Ratier was clearly keen to look at the next generation. Out of the 38 players that took part in the training camp, 16 were uncapped and a number were still teenagers.

It was also an opportunity for the squad to move on from the disappointment of their fourth-place finish at the Women’s Rugby World Cup. Not only dismissed by eventual champions, England, in the semi-final, the side also saw Axelle Berthoumieu banned for biting and Feleu banned for a dangerous tackle.

“I think we needed to move on, it wasn’t all negative either, but it’s a new cycle so we obviously want to start again with new foundations,” Ratier said in Blagnac.

“We want to open up because we’re starting on a four-year cycle, we’ve calculated that we should see around 60-70 players over this cycle.

“There may even be players who are 17 or 18 years old today who will be at the World Cup (in 2029), so we want to broaden as much as possible, obviously there is the Tournament coming up where we will tighten things up, but in the next training camp we will have we will open it up again.”

In Ratier, France have installed a serial winner in their head coaching position. During his time with Canada he took the North Americans to the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup final and while coaching Stade Bordelais in Élite 1 won back-to-back titles.

Last month Ratier appointed Gérald Bastide as defence, transition and skills coach, while Florent Wieczorek has been appointed forwards coach.

Ratier’s tenure as head coach begins in Saturday 11 April when France host Italy at the Stade des Alpes in the first round of the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations.

France Women training squad

Forwards

Ylona Avril
Makarita Baleinadogo
Amalia Bazola Allieres
Rose Bernadou
Axelle Berthoumieu
Cloé Correa
Léa Champon
Charlotte Escudero
Isis Espuga
Madoussou Fall Raclot
Manae Feleu
Assia Khalfaoui
Mathilde Lazarko
Tifen Lesieu
Taina Maka
Mailys Mailagi
Ambre Mwayembe
Elsa Peyras
Élisa Riffonneau
Charlotte Rufas
Sobehian Soqeta
Eva Tougne
Kiara Zago

Backs

Carla Arbez
Pauline Barrat
Émilie Boulard
Pauline Bourdon Sansus
Morgane Bourgeois
Anaïs Grando
Joanna Grisez
Marie Ibanez
Chloé Jacquet
Léa Murie
Lylou Pedussaud
Lina Queyroi
Aubane Rousset
Lina Tuy
Gabrielle Vernier