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Here and no further: how France failed to hit new heights in 2025
Fourth is, by sporting consent, the worst tournament position — a so-near, so-far frustration of a finish. Those who prepared for a competition for years to place just outside the medals have described their disappointment at giving their all and, despite everything, not being quite good enough.
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Defeat to the Black Ferns at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham, on Saturday afternoon handed France a second Women’s Rugby World Cup fourth-place finish, to go with the six thirds they have racked up since the play-off for beaten semi-finalists was introduced. In the end, Les Bleues weren’t quite good enough. Again.
They’ve been in the third-place play-off eight times – never once getting to the showpiece. And there’s no medal for losing this game. Just the promise that, by getting so close — again — France have guaranteed themselves another shot in four years’ time in Australia.
For all their ‘outsider’ talk, for all their relative inexperience compared to England and New Zealand, for all the internal scaffolding still in place following the post-New Zealand tournament rebuild, France chased more in England. They wanted to shatter the semi-final glass ceiling.
Sure, they stared deserved champions England in the eye for 40 minutes or so in the semi-final, then hit back at New Zealand hard, scoring three times in the final quarter of their third-place play-off. But they could not maintain the early intensity against the Red Roses, and their fightback only came when the Black Ferns were out of sight.
This is the never-ending story for Les Bleues. They’ve reached here and no further. Nor, unlike — according to some analysts — New Zealand, whose win in 2022 and whose third here throws a cover of sorts over issues there, there’s no hiding place behind trophies and finals. France’s last title was the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2018.
There’s no getting away from the fact that France’s vaulting ambition has o’erleapt itself one more time. For all their effort, their desire, this France squad are as good as they can be with the set-up as it currently is.
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“Settling for third or fourth, and finishing fourth, just isn’t good enough,” Pauline Bourdon Sansus told journalists after the New Zealand defeat. “We were hoping for more… and I think we had the means to do better, but there are still too many things missing for us to break into the top three.
“We still have a lot of work to do, and I hope things will be better in four years. The Six Nations will be here soon, so we’ll have a chance to get back on track.”
That’s a team and coaches thing. About two-thirds of the playing squad have recently extended their central contracts, with around 10 deals still up in the air, according to Midi Olympique. Those who have re-signed include a number of players who have just taken part in their first Women’s Rugby World Cup. They’ll have four years’ more experience by the time Australia rolls around.
But co-selectors David Ortiz and Gaëlle Mignot have reached the end of their contracts, with no guarantees right now that they’ll be asked to continue. More than one Elite 1 coach’s CV is on an FFR desk right now, reports suggest.
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The issue, however, is not necessarily with the team and the coaches. There’s plenty still to work on — the players admitted as much after the losses against England and New Zealand. But with what they’ve got, they’ve done about as well as they could.
That it’s not, to use Bourdon Sansus’s own words, “good enough”, highlights the systemic problems of a still fundamentally amateur set-up in a professional era.
“Women’s rugby is where men’s was 30 years ago,” Marie-Françoise Magignot, volunteer president of ASM Romagnat, told French magazine Challenges recently. “We are only in the early stages of professionalisation.”
According to the magazine, 32 players in France have semi-professional contracts with the FFR, paying them for 75 per cent of their time. It doesn’t reveal how much that is worth, or if pay scales are adjusted according to what players earn when they’re not training and playing. There are a wide range of potential figures. France captain Manae Feleu is in the fifth year of training to be a doctor. The now-retired Manon Bigot is a firefighter. Madoussou Fall Raclot has her own plus-size fashion line.
For the record, the current minimum wage for full-time workers in France, after taxes and other deductions, is €17,115.69.
Back-row forward Charlotte Escudero, hot off a series of powerhouse performances in England, told the magazine that she might have to ‘find a job’ after the World Cup.
“We’re lucky,” the Toulouse flanker said. “Players who work during the day are reimbursed by the club for 20 percent of their time. “The majority of girls in the club train in the evening, because… they have to work during the day”
Stade Toulousain offers match bonuses, Challenges reported, while club sponsors help with property purchases, cars, and some employment assistance.
This is still very far from modern professionalism – and from the system that undoubtedly helped power England to the title that France desperately craved. Nor is it news. Pundits, coaches and players have spoken about it in the recent past.
Professionalism extends beyond pay – though being able to train and recover properly without worrying about covering the bills is a fundamental element. But it also includes facilities, coaching, medical care, nutrition, everything the men’s game considers standard.
Speaking to Midi Olympique, Bourdon Sansus said: “Clubs need to be better structured. We need to have a real medical and sports staff. That requires investment.
“I feel like I’ve been saying the same thing for three or four years, without much change. It’s… frustrating, but this World Cup can provide some positive momentum.”
She went on: “There will be a before and after this World Cup. When I see how big [the women’s game has] become in France and England, I think it’s bound to change things.”
It should. TV records in France were not just broken during the tournament. They were ripped asunder. An average 3.8million French people tuned into broadcaster TF1 to watch the semi-final loss to England — the highest ratings for any women’s rugby match on French TV. At its peak, 4.4million viewers were glued to their screens, official overnight figures show.
The previous record average, set a week earlier, was 3.45million for the France-Ireland quarter-final – an encounter that saw peak viewership hit 4.6million. Les Bleues’ Pool D opener against Italy had already raised the bar to 3.2million, while some 2.5million watched the third-place play-off loss to New Zealand.
These are numbers that cannot be ignored. The talk out of FFR headquarters is that they won’t be, that this Women’s Rugby World Cup will be a springboard to a better future.
Several key changes have already been announced. Insurance giants AXA have come on board as title sponsors of the domestic women’s Elite 1 league from October for the next three seasons.
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Announcing the deal, FFR president Florian Grill said: “The FFR welcomes this partnership with AXA, which aims to increase women’s participation and the level of the Championship.
“Today, the budgets of Elite 1 clubs are between €400,000 and €800,000. Ultimately, with this partnership, we would like to increase them to €1.8million to €2million.”
That’s still less than half the budget of the lowest-spending club in the ProD2, and is on a par with third-tier Nationale.
Grill went on: “Two-thirds [of the funding generated by the partnership with AXA] will go directly to the clubs … The remaining third will be devoted to media coverage. This is how we create a virtuous circle.”
It’s hoped in the corridors of French rugby power that, having seen the interest generated in France by Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, other sponsors will now follow. They’ll want a return on their investment.
A small selection of domestic top-flight matches – played at Top 14 venues before the men’s fixtures – were broadcast on pay-TV broadcaster Canal Plus last season. The experiment will be repeated this season: the first televised match has been announced. In total, around 20 of the 90 Elite 1 games this season will make it on to TV screens.
Even before the World Cup in England, Grill and the FFR were talking up the future of the women’s game in France.
“We’ve been working on this for two years,” he insisted in an interview before the tournament. “We’ve gone from 40,000 to 53,000 registered players. The goal is to reach 100,000, knowing that we’ve gone up from 400 to more than 600 women’s teams.
“In our desire to develop women’s rugby [in France], this World Cup will mark a turning point.”
There is a long way for France to go. Former international Lenaig Corson, who played domestic rugby in England, told The Rugby Paper recently: “Players [in England] are 100 times more professional than players in France.
“[England] are strong because they have a strong championship. The French, if they want to progress, the championship needs to improve a lot… The federation is in the process of restructuring and reorganising the Elite 1 — but we’re way behind England.”
Although the AXA headlines focus on the top echelons of the game, a lot of the building work is ground up. This is sensible. For all their shop window status, the France squad and Elite 1 cannot reach the higher level it needs without a strong grassroots set-up. Amateur rugby, where players learn to love the game, are the foundations on which the elite competitions, and the national squads are built.
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So, a €60million Marshall Plan of sorts to develop rugby infrastructure across France has placed specific emphasis on facilities for female players. A €2million fund via Adidas, meanwhile, is entirely dedicated to age-grade female rugby teams.
“Whenever we can promote women’s rugby, in any division, we will do it and we do it. We promote, we reward and we help clubs that focus on women’s rugby because it is the future and there is enormous potential,” Grill said.
Bourdon Sansus deserves the final word: “We’ve had so much positive feedback throughout this competition. We’ve seen how much interest there is in France. More and more young girls want to put on boots and get out on the pitch.
“I think France has also realised that investment is needed, and I hope we’ll get it. I feel like there’s a genuine political will to see women’s rugby grow in France. I really hope the resources will follow and that we can close the gap with Canada and England.”
We’ll see what progress France may make in four years.
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