French superstars tumble in Galthie's hard-headed Six Nations cull

La Rochelle No.8 Gregory Alldritt is one of several French stars to miss out on Fabien Galthie’s 42-man squad for the Guinness Six Nations.

Reports emerged on Tuesday that the 28-year-old, who deputised as captain in Antoine Dupont’s absence in the 2025 Championship, was set to miss out on the reigning champions’ squad, with other reports suggesting record try-scorer Damian Penaud and captain for the tour of New Zealand in July, the 98-cap Gael Fickou, were also set to be omitted.

The reports have proven to be true, with the trio missing out on selection as Galthie has freshened up his squad, welcoming Castres’ former Australia U20 lock Tom Staniforth. However, at the age of 31, he is three years Alldritt’s senior, two years older than Penaud, and only a year younger than Fickou.

The Australian is one of several uncapped players in the squad, who bring plenty of youth to the set-up. The list of uncapped additions includes Bordeaux back-row Temo Matiu, 24, Pau full-back Grégoire Arfeuil, 21, Pau centre Fabien Brau-Boirie, 20, Toulon wing Gaël Dréan, 25, Stade Francais centre Noah Nene, 21, Racing 92 fly-half Ugo Seunes, 25, and Olympic gold medallist, Pau wing Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, 25.

It was just a matter of months ago that Seunes was featuring in the Pro D2 relegation play-off for Aurillac against Chambéry to avoid being relegated to the Nationale, now he will be deputising for Matthieu Jalibert at fly-half for Les Bleus following a summer move to Paris. The pair are the only fly-halves in the squad for now, with Romain Ntamack expected to miss the opening two rounds.

Fixture

Six Nations

France

12:10

5 Feb 26

Ireland

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Galthie has welcomed back Antoine Dupont for the first time since rupturing his ACL in last season’s Six Nations, as France get their Six Nations campaign underway against Ireland in Paris on Thursday, February 5.

Alldritt was a surprise omission from the France squad that faced the Springboks in the Quilter Nations Series, although his exclusion happened to come days after he had made comments about needing a “little bit of love” after leaving the France camp to join La Rochelle. Furthermore, he was reportedly not keen to take part in the series with the All Blacks in July.

France squad
Fowards
Dorian Aldegheri
Uini Antonio
Hugo Auradou
Cyril Baille
Paul Boudehent
François Cros
Alexandre Fischer
Thibaud Flament
Jean-Baptiste Gros
Mickaël Guillard
Oscar Jegou
Anthony Jelonch
Maxime Lamothe
Julien Marchand
Temo Matiu
Peato Mauvaka
Emmanuel Meafou
Régis Montagne
Rodrigue Neti
Lenni Nouchi
Charles Ollivon
Dany Priso
Thomas Staniforth
Tevita Tatafu
Cameron Woki

Backs
Grégoire Arfeuil
Théo Attissogbe
Louis Bielle-Biarrey
Fabien Brau-Boirie
Romain Buros
hibault Daubagna
Nicolas Depoortere
Gaël Dréan
Antoine Dupont
Kalvin Gourgues
Aaron Grandidier Nkanang
Matthieu Jalibert
Yoram Moefana
Noah Nene
Thomas Ramos
Baptiste Serin
Ugo Seunes