If France fielded a B team in their first Test against New Zealand, the one selected by Fabien Galthie for the second match of the three-Test series had a C string feel to it.
Gone was the outstanding back-row of Alexandre Fischer, Mickaël Guillard and Killian Tixeront, three of seven players axed from the pack that performed so manfully in the 31-27 defeat. The backline from Dunedin was rejigged with last week’s captain Gael Fickou left out and his centre partner, Émilien Gailleton, shunted to the wing. Théo Attissogbe, so impressive in the first Test at full-back, was also moved out wide.
It’s fair to say Galthie isn’t making many friends in New Zealand. He recognises the fact but counters that he’s playing the hand he’s been dealt by the FFR and the LNR, the governing body of the Top 14. In September 2024 they agreed a player welfare agreement, “with an approach focused on managing the players most in demand and gradually building up the squad”.
Galthie sees this as a tour of construction ahead of the 2027 World Cup. The first Test taught him Attissogbe, Fischer, Tixeront and Guillard have the qualities to be members of that squad. On the other hand, on the evidence of the 43-17 drubbing in Wellington, most of the starting pack do not. The bulk won’t be seen again in a Bleu shirt after this tour.
Even if Galthie reverts to his strongest possible XV for Saturday’s final Test – and France are once more fiercely competitive – this series will leave a bad taste in the mouth of many New Zealanders.
“It’s ridiculous that they’re able to bring this, an average of nine caps, it’s disrespectful,” said former All Black full-back Mils Muliaina last week, adding that the All Blacks always tour Europe with the strongest squad possible. “Can you imagine us taking an understrength team, imagine the outcry that would cause.”
It’s a fair point, but would it cause much of an outcry in France? Most Top 14 clubs and their supporters resent the November internationals, in the same way Premier League football fans find their international breaks a pain in the backside.
There is the risk of injury to key players and also the possibility their club’s momentum is broken. Last season, for example, Racing 92 went into the November break on a roll, victorious in four of their five most recent fixtures. When the Top 14 restarted three weeks later their form had gone AWOL, and the Parisians didn’t win again until the end of February.
France likes its international rugby. The Six Nations always arouses interest, particularly ‘Le Crunch’ against perfidious Albion, and the World Cup is a big event. But the November and summer Test matches are only really followed by aficionados. Most of the country is holidaying this month, uninterested in any sport except the Tour de France.
But France loves its club rugby. More than five million viewers watched Toulouse beat Bordeaux in last month’s Top 14 final, a 28.5% share of the total television audience. Not bad for a Saturday evening when competition on other channels is fierce.
It’s illustrative of a championship on the rise. A record three million spectators attended regular season matches in the 2024-25 Top 14, an average of 16,114 spectators per match and a 6% increase on the previous season. Bordeaux had an average crowd of 30,000 per home game, followed by Toulouse (21,000), Toulon (18,400) and Lyon (17,900).
The ProD2 also enjoyed a record season in 2024-25, pulling in 1.4 million spectators, at an average of 5,959 fans each match.
Contrast those figures with some of the crowd numbers in Super Rugby this season. “You could throw a wheelbarrow load of waterbombs towards the rows of empty seats in New Zealand and Australia and not risk drenching a spectator,” remarked New Zealand’s Stuff Media in March this year.
It noted some of the crowd figures for recent games: 11,700 for the Crusaders vs the Reds in Christchurch, 6,000 for the Hurricanes against Moana Pasifika in Albany, and 5,000 for the Highlanders vs Moana Pasifika.
It’s the same dismal story in Australia: 5,165 for the Force v the Waratahs and 9,000 for the Brumbies against the Waratahs. Suncorp Stadium can boast better figures – 18,000 fans watched the Reds vs the Hurricanes, for example, but that still leaves 34,000 vacant seats.
Why is Super Rugby struggling to put bums on seats, even in New Zealand? Because a growing number of All Blacks prefer to take sabbaticals. Among those who have agreed sabbaticals with New Zealand Rugby in recent seasons are Rieko Ioane, Jordie Barrett, Sam Cane, Damian McKenzie, Beauden Barrett, Ardie Savea and Mark Tele’a. Most take their sabbatical in Japan which, with the greatest of respect, is not the most demanding competition in world rugby.
When it was announced last month Savea will be in Japan next year rather than representing Moana Pasifika in Super Rugby, head coach Fa’alogo Tana Umaga said: “These sabbaticals are part of the modern game and we have been preparing for this for some time.”
Sabbaticals aren’t part of the modern game in France. The equivalent is what the FFR calls, “managing the players”, which in other words means allowing a few players to take July off to rest their battered bodies. They need it. Otherwise more players will be joining the casualty list. In the last eighteen months Antoine Dupont, Charles Ollivon, Anthony Jelonch, Romain Ntamack, Cyril Baille and Peato Mauvaka have all ruptured their knee or ankle ligaments. Two other seasoned internationals, Bernard Le Roux and Paul Willemse, have been forced into premature retirement by concussion.
The Top 14 is the most relentlessly physical competition in world rugby. It is also the most lucrative. Club owners pay big bucks to their big names and they want some bang for that buck. Likewise, the fans click through the turnstiles to see the top players. The sparse attendances in Super Rugby shows what happens when teams – to paraphrase Muliaina– “disrespect” the public.
The unions of New Zealand and South Africa do everything in their power to make their national teams as competitive as possible in every match because the All Blacks and the Springboks are more than just rugby teams: they put their countries on the map.
The All Blacks Experience, a partnership between New Zealand Rugby and Ng?i Tahu Tourism, says in its mission statement: “Rugby is woven into the fabric of New Zealand. It’s not only the national sport, it’s part of the national identity.”
That is not the case in France. In the northern half of the country there is general indifference to rugby. There is fervour in the southern half, all right, but it is tribal, what is known as l’esprit de clocher – ‘the spirit of the bell tower’.
Rugby forges the identity of villages and towns, creating a passion on and off the pitch. The same applies to the professional teams. It’s why French clubs regard the Top 14 as more prestigious than the Champions Cup.
Canal Plus, the Top 14 broadcaster in France, recently aired a documentary to mark thirty years of professional club rugby. One of the talking heads was the All Blacks top points scorer Dan Carter, who won the Top 14 title with Racing 92 in 2016. “French rugby and its players thrive on emotion,” he reflected. “That’s what I love about supporters: they were born supporting their club. They love, they protect, they cherish rugby.”
Kiwis, on the other hand, come into this world supporting the All Blacks, and that is the essential difference between these two great rugby nations. Test rugby is the be all and end all for New Zealand rugby fans. In France it’s the B movie to the main event that is the Top 14.
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