Nine France players to keep an eye on in new World Cup cycle

France’s new head coach Francois Ratier laid down a marker with his first Six Nations squad, a 32-player list that is long on potential and short on international experience.

His match day team sheet for Italy has shown he is going to try and implement his new game plan from the very start, with the likes of experienced and reliable goal kicker and full back Moragne Bourgeois left out of the team completely.

France, still, boast a number of players impossible to ignore — Pauline Bourdon Sansus, Madoussou Fall Raclot, Charlotte Escudero, Joanna Grisez, Gabrielle Vernier, and captain Manae Feleu, for example.

But post-World Cup retirements, a number of injuries, and the inevitable changes brought by the new managerial direction, mean that Ratier’s first France side is very different to those that have gone before, as he sets out on the early steps of a new World Cup cycle.

Here, then, and in no particular order, are nine players — three veterans and six uncapped players looking for a breakout tournament — who could make a mark on this year’s Six Nations, with France’s real goal still a few years away.

Manae Feleu (Second row/back row, Grenoble)
Ratier, as we’ve mentioned, has made numerous changes to the France squad since taking charge in early January. There’ll be different playing priorities, too. We’re promised, for example, the new-look Bleues will have “an ambitious playing style” — built from their defence — that aims to “entertain the crowd”. But one continuity choice was obvious for the restart after France’s World Cup disappointment — keeping workhorse second row Feleu as captain.

Her partnership with Fall Raclot in the engine room has long been a linchpin of the French game, and Ratier has wisely chosen not to change everything everywhere all at once. One of the things that work is Feleu-Fall Raclot in the row, with the former as skipper.

Pauline Bourdon Sansus (Scrum-half, Stade Toulousain)
There was a time before Bourdon Sansus. There will be a time after Bourdon Sansus. We should simply rejoice in the fact we’re living in the time of Bourdon Sansus.

The 30-year-old scrum-half — who reckons she’s ‘getting better with age’ — is a player who simply cannot be ignored, even when it seems there are no more superlatives left, no more that can be said. Put simply, whenever she is in the team she leads from the front, sets the tempo, and makes chances out of nothing. Le Figaro was right when it said she had ‘revolutionised the French game’. Under Ratier, she has a chance to do it all over again.

Anais Grando (Fullback, ASM Romagnat)
You wait for ages for a potential successor to Jessy Trémoulière — and then several come along in rapid succession. Bordeaux’s Morgane Bourgeois, of the long-range boot bombs, despite not being picked for round one, will almost certainly be top of Francois Ratier’s list for the 15 shirt, but the 23-year-old Grando is sniping at her heels.

Named on the right wing for the Championship opener, she has been a revelation since joining ASM Romagnat from Perpignan — where it’s intended she will eventually step into the club boots of The Duchess. In fact, in January, Midi Olympique listed Grando as one of its 15 faces of French rugby for 2026.
She was noticeably the only woman to make the list. We may well find out why in this Six Nations.

Watch out, too, for Toulouse fullback Pauline Barrat who has prised the number 15 shirt from long incumbent Bourgeois for Saturday’s match.

Joanna Grisez (Winger, Stade Bordelais)
MMA’s loss has been French rugby’s gain. At university a decade ago, rugby chose the 29-year-old, who until then had a career in the octagon in mind.

Selected for France universities less than a year after picking up a rugby ball for the first time, she played in the University Sevens World Cup in 2017, then joined the French sevens development team – and landed her first contract with the FFR a year later.

Since then, she has featured in two World Cups, a Sevens World Cup and the Paris Olympics. She was the only French player to make the Team of the Tournament at the 2025 World Cup, and was named the best female player at French rugby’s annual Nuit de Rugby Awards. Wingers don’t come much better than Grisez.

Mathilde Lazarko (Hooker, ASM Romagnat)
The retirements of Agathe Sochat and Manon Bigot after last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup left an international experience vacancy in the middle of France’s front row.

With 10 caps, 22-year-old Élisa Riffonneau is the veteran among the two hookers in Ratier’s 32-player squad for the Italy game, but this looks set to be a breakout Six Nations for the other one — ASM Romagnat’s hard-working captain Mathilde Lazarko.

The 26-year-old, who leads the AXA Elite 1 try-scoring stats with 13 in 11 matches, has been called up to France training camps before, but this is the first time she has made a Championship squad, let alone given a match day starting spot.

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Wins

5

Draws

0

Wins

0

Average Points scored

32

11

First try wins

80%

Home team wins

60%

Aubane Rousset (Centre, Stade Bordelais)
There’s also an open vacancy in the French midfield alongside the remarkable Vernier following the post-World Cup international retirement of Marine Ménager. The player who scored the decisive try late in last year’s Elite 1 final is desperate to be the one to fill it.

This is a first senior international call-up for the three-time French champion — and, after previously wearing the international shirt at under-20 level, the 23-year-old is eager to make a statement on the biggest stage.

Marie Ibañez (Winger, Stade Bordelais)
Two years ago, Marie Ibañez — the 23-year-old daughter of 98-cap France international Raphael — took a gamble. In search of game time, she left Toulouse and joined two-time champions Stade Bordelais.

An Elite 1 title later, the tireless winger was called up to a France training camp for the first time earlier this year, and from there straight into Ratier’s first 32-player squad. Despite not making the match day 23 to face Italy, she’s a player the coach evidently has an eye on for the future, and she may get a chance to make her first mark in the coming weeks.

Maïlys Mailagi (Prop, Stade Bordelais)
There’s plenty of competition for front row places in the France squad, but Stade Bordelais’ 22-year-old loosehead Mailagi — a convert from rugby league, who was named French player of the year in 2019 by French rugby league website Treize Mondial, and playing in the 2022 Women’s Rugby League World Cup — has a bright future.

She was already making her name in the 15-player game, winning titles with former club Toulon, and playing at international level with the all-conquering French age-grade sides. Now, with three Elite 1 titles to her name at Bordeaux, she’s making the final step-up to the senior international game.

Cloé Corréa (Second row, Toulouse)
Eight years ago, according to a report in regional newspaper La Dépêche, then teenager Cloé Corréa told her father, Senegal and Albi lock Yogane Corréa, that she would one day play senior rugby for France.

The Toulouse lock, who won a Summer Series Six Nations Grand Slam with the under-20s in 2025, and has broken into the leaders’ Elite 1 squad is closer than ever to keeping her promise. Now, there’s just the small matter of getting into the match day squad and pushing Feleu and Fall Raclot for a starting shirt. In line to make her debut on Saturday, that won’t happen straight away, but word from the Toulouse camp is that Corréa has the ability and work ethic to do it.

Read our full 2026 Women’s Six Nations preview.