A list of 33 protected players that nobody is obliged to respect

A scheme presented as a way of managing game time should be judged by what happens when it is not respected. Here, nothing does.

What the scheme says

The FFR (French Rugby Federation) and the LNR (the body that runs French professional rugby) have drawn up a list of 33 internationals whose workload will be managed during the 2026-27 season. Each must get one weekend without a match in every block of four weekends, or two weekends off in a block of eight. In return, none of them can play more than nine of the season’s twelve Tests.

The scheme is not binding, however. Asked by RMC, Top 14 directors of rugby describe it as “a sort of gentleman’s agreement”, and the federation confirms as much: “There is no obligation, nobody will be sanctioned for not resting a player after four matches. But it has to be justified, with an explanation of why.” The agreement can be broken if a club finds itself short of players in a specific position.

The list was revealed by Midi Olympique and picked up by Rugbyrama. It covers nine of the fourteen Top 14 clubs. Five have nobody to protect: Bayonne, Castres, Stade Français, USAP and Vannes.

The FFR denies the published lists

Update, 18 September. Jean-Marc Lhermet, vice-president of the French Rugby Federation, told L’Équipe that “the lists that have been published in the press are wrong”. The names therefore officially remain secret.

The federation gives a reason: it does not want this group to be read as a provisional squad for the 2027 World Cup, nor as a ranking of the best French players of the moment. The selection criteria relate to the workload experiment, not to ability.

The names below are those published by Midi Olympique and picked up by Rugbyrama. They are given with that caveat, and the figures attached to them remain accurate for each of the players named.

The list of 33

Stade Toulousain (13): Dorian Aldegheri, Cyril Baille, Pierre-Louis Barassi, François Cros, Antoine Dupont, Thibaud Flament, Anthony Jelonch, Julien Marchand, Peato Mauvaka, Emmanuel Meafou, Rodrigue Neti, Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos.

Union Bordeaux-Bègles (6): Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Nicolas Depoortere, Matthieu Jalibert, Maxime Lamothe, Yoram Moefana, Damian Penaud.

Stade Rochelais (3): Paul Boudehent, Oscar Jegou, Nolann Le Garrec.

Section Paloise (3): Grégoire Arfeuil, Théo Attissogbe, Fabien Brau-Boirie.

Rugby Club Toulonnais (3): Gaël Fickou, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Charles Ollivon.

Racing 92 (2): Ugo Seunes, Romain Taofifenua.

Clermont (1): Régis Montagne. LOU (1): Mickaël Guillard. Montpellier (1): Lenni Nouchi.

All thirty-three are indeed in the squad of the club shown for the current season.

A group with a median age of 28 years and 10 months

On 1 September 2027, the date used here to mark the start of the World Cup in Australia, the median age of the thirty-three will be 28 years and 10 months, with an average of 28 years and 11 months. Fourteen will be thirty or older, seven will be under twenty-five.

So the group is not old as a whole. It is in places, and the breakdown by club tells you more than the overall average.

The three youngest protected players on the whole list are the three from Pau: Fabien Brau-Boirie will be 21 years and 8 months, Grégoire Arfeuil 22 years and 8 months, Théo Attissogbe 22 years and 9 months. The thirteen Toulouse players, by contrast, have a median age of 31 years and 1 month, more than eight years older than the Pau trio.

The oldest in the group is Romain Taofifenua, who will be 36 years and 11 months at the World Cup. He has not been selected since November 2025.

Their 2025-26 season, minute by minute

The table adds up the Top 14, including the knockout stage, the European competition their club played in, and France’s eleven matches between the November 2025 Tests and the summer tour.

The thirty-three clocked up 49,952 minutes, 10,477 of them on international duty, or 21%.

Louis Bielle-Biarrey carried the heaviest load with 2,315 minutes, ahead of Damian Penaud and Matthieu Jalibert: Union Bordeaux-Bègles have the top three in the ranking, ahead of the first Toulouse player. Maxime Lamothe was named in thirty-three matchday squads, the highest total in the group.

In the Top 14 alone, it is a Pau player who played the most: Fabien Brau-Boirie, 1,551 minutes at the age of 20.

Three protected players did not play a single minute for France last season: Cyril Baille, Grégoire Arfeuil and Ugo Seunes.

The Test quota is already ticking

This is the point the scheme does not highlight. France’s twelve matches this season include the three July Tests, already played against New Zealand, Australia and Japan. The count therefore does not start from zero in November.

Going back through the three team sheets for each of the thirty-three, twelve have already started using up their quota.

Nine matches remain between now and the end of the 2027 Six Nations, four in November and five in the spring. Five players will therefore have to miss three of them, and seven will have to miss two. Rotation is not a management option for Fabien Galthié, it is an arithmetical consequence.

Last season, the cap was in fact already being brushed: of France’s eleven matches between November 2025 and July 2026, Emmanuel Meafou and Oscar Jegou played nine, and no other protected player went beyond eight.

A scope that remains unclear

There is still some uncertainty about the exact boundaries of the monitoring. RMC counts Maxime Lucu among the players subject to the cap, whereas Midi Olympique, Le Figaro and Quinze Mondial all say he is not on the list, and explain why: he was injured in January, when the choices were made, and had not played in the 2026 Six Nations.

The same article also mentions “other players monitored by the staff, including young players”. There is therefore probably a second circle, wider than the thirty-three, whose make-up has never been published. Our count covers only the names that are known.

The real issue lies behind it: workload

This list is the visible tip of a broader experiment called “player load”, which tracks the number of matches and minutes but also the collisions and accelerations recorded by GPS and smart mouthguards, training included. The stated aim is to arrive at a regulated framework after the World Cup in Australia.

Last season’s figures show the size of the gap. Six of the thirty-three went past 2,000 minutes: Louis Bielle-Biarrey 2,315, Damian Penaud 2,226, Matthieu Jalibert 2,215, Thomas Ramos 2,087, Fabien Brau-Boirie 2,076 and Oscar Jegou 2,022. By way of comparison, RMC notes that Malcolm Marx played 1,380 minutes last season, Ardie Savea 1,782, Caelan Doris 1,680, Siya Kolisi 956 and Ox Nché 914, all managed by their respective unions.

Multiplied over the four seasons between two World Cups, the gap becomes a way of life. That is the imbalance the list claims to correct. For now, it does so without imposing anything on anyone.

The omissions that are causing debate

The selections were locked in as early as January 2026, before the Six Nations, then passed to the steering committee in April. The pecking order has shifted since.

Maxime Lucu, France captain during the Nations Championship and a starter in all three summer Tests, is not on the list. Nor are Grégory Alldritt and Hugo Auradou. Two of them reminded the national set-up of their existence this weekend: Hugo Auradou scored twice in Pau’s 70-28 win over Bayonne, and Maxime Lucu came on in the 46th minute at Ernest-Wallon before adding the extras to UBB’s only converted try.

Conversely, Cyril Baille and Ugo Seunes were selected without having played a single international minute in 2026, and Romain Taofifenua even though he had not been called up for a year.