Report: France planning to stiff 2025 tour to play All Blacks

France head coach Fabien Galthie has laid bare his plans for the next Rugby World Cup cycle in 2027, which includes short-changing New Zealand fans when they tour down under in 2025.

They are planning to leave up to 20 players behind in France for the tour, most of their stars including Romain Ntamack, Antoine Dupont, Damian Penaud, Grégory Alldritt, and Peato Mauvaka among others.

“We follow a hundred players. But above all we have identified a ‘premium’ group of 20 players,” he said in an interview with L’Equipe.

“We want them to have consistent development. We want to work hand in hand with the league and the clubs. Our goal is for players to be able to give the best of themselves in the French team, but also in club. We want to go further while taking into account the challenges of the clubs.”

“Players will benefit from four mandatory weeks off and four weeks without matches,” he added.

The Top 14 is one of the most demanding domestic leagues in the world, which makes the playing load for French eligible players one of the highest around the globe.

The decision to leave high profile players behind is a move to manage that load more effectively.

It was well publicised just how many injuries the French team dealt with during the lead in to the Rugby World Cup, with an extensive list of players racing the clock to be fit.

France also suffered from the loss of flyhalf Romain Ntamack on the eve of the World Cup during a warm-up match.

However, Galthie insisted that this is nothing new with the summer tours used in this way already. The 2021 tour of Australia featured a team of unrecognisable players with very few big names.

“We built on trust while adjusting the management of the international season by choosing to rest our ‘premium’ during the summer tours,” he said.

“It was a first step. We want to go even further which will mean that we will go on tour in the summer of 2025 in New Zealand without our ‘premium’ players.

“It’s been like this for four years. Why change strategy? Because we’re travelling to the All Blacks? You have to be consistent.”