The back of the France team and Stade Toulousain, Melvyn Jaminet, author of 19 points, largely worked for the victory of the Blues against Fiji, in Nantes, on August 19, 2023. LOIC VENANCE / AFP
Part of France is suffocating under the heat wave, but the Nantes evening, Saturday August 19, was almost cool. It is not known if this will be enough to soothe the burning of the “monumental slap”as coach Fabien Galthié called it, received on Monday when the Blues learned of the package for the World Cup from their master to play, Romain Ntamack.
The XV of France will in any case find in its clear victory against Fiji (34 to 17) at the Beaujoire stadium, in Nantes, enough to end the week in a better mood. With a revamped starting XV, showing shortcomings but also good prospects, the Blues have had a successful evening, three weeks before the gargantuan opening match of the World Cup at home, on September 8 against New Zealand.
Even if Fiji are not the All Blacks, even if there are still bolts to tighten and sights to adjust, we must not disdain a victory, the 13th in a row at home. “This match reassured us. We were able to follow the strategy worked on all week. We were able to manage the weak times, when we collected points, to get back on track and score straight away. It was very satisfying” welcomed after the match the captain of the evening, Grégory Alldritt.
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The offensive performance is a slight improvement compared to that rendered last week in Saint-Etienne, during the 30-27 victory against Scotland. We saw – rarely, briefly but distinctly – snippets of the game that led the French to victory in the Six Nations Tournament in 2022: incisive runs, speed and precision in gestures. Peato Mauvaka’s try (29th minute), after a play on the right then on the left, breakthroughs creating a perfectly exploited surplus, is a good illustration of this. Even if all is not perfect, far from it.
“There is still work to be done and that is very good. There are points that we have added to our game which have been very effective. We have a lot of points for improvement, that’s reassuring.” judged the coach of the Blues, Fabien Galthié, after the match.
The French were able to respond to the Fijian physical challenge
By the sixtieth minute, the bench of substitutes – or rather the finishers, as the staff call them – had already been emptied. A rare but wise decision: this fresh blood made a difference that we had not seen in Saint-Etienne and the “air holes” in the game of the XV of France seen during the first two preparation matches seem to have been sealed. “I would really like to congratulate the finishers: when you are on the pitch and those who come in bring impact, it brings a lot of energy and it totally restarts the match” greeted evening captain Gregory Alldritt.
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