They made the trip, not the team: the tour’s seven shadow men

Emilien Gailleton, Temo Matiu, Esteban Capilla… They made the trip, but not the team sheet. A look at the forgotten men of France’s summer tour.

“You have to go out and earn the shirt,” Fabien Galthié has hammered home since taking the job. Over this Nations Championship, the France head coach left out seven of the forty-two players he had called up for the tour against New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

Among them, two players many expected to get their chance: Pau’s Emilien Gailleton and Bordeaux’s Temo Matiu, victims of fierce competition in midfield and the back row, but also of the stability the staff favour a year out from the 2027 World Cup. Bayonne’s Esteban Capilla, who had a much-noticed first half of the season in the Top 14, also had a card to play in the absence of the senior men. It came to nothing.

No third cap either for UBB lock Boris Palu, and no first cap for the newcomers Théo Forner (Perpignan), Mathis Ferté (Toulon) and Auguste Cadot (Montpellier). Seven players heading home to France without setting foot on the pitch, after close to 39,000 kilometres travelled, round trip included. The price of a wide squad and a course set on stability. That said, their trip was far from pointless. In training, these players-in-waiting provide high-level opposition and push the starters day in, day out: without team-mates of that calibre, preparing seriously for a match is impossible. A role in the shadows, but essential to the life of a squad.

And yet a full season behind them

It is hard to fault them on form: all were coming off a benchmark season in the Top 14. Bayonne’s Esteban Capilla was even the most prolific of this group of forgotten men, with ten tries.

Top 14 2025-26 statistics (source: It’s Rugby database).