France recall Alldritt and Penaud, seven uncapped

The squad meets at Marcoussis on Sunday.

France host Fiji in Lyon on 7 November and South Africa on 13 November, before facing Argentina. The Dupont-Ntamack half-back pairing is reunited, twenty months after the scrum-half’s serious knee injury in Dublin. But above all, the squad shows the scale of the injury list.

262 caps in the treatment room

Julien Marchand, Thomas Ramos, Matthieu Jalibert, Thibaud Flament, Demba Bamba, Emmanuel Meafou, Pierre-Louis Barassi, Lenni Nouchi and Florian Verhaeghe are all out. Between them, the nine have 262 caps, more than a hundred for Marchand and Ramos alone. Toulouse are hit hardest, with four absentees, and send only six players to Marcoussis. The second row suffers most: without Flament, Meafou or Verhaeghe, Galthie calls up Tyler Duguid (Montpellier) and Tom Staniforth (Castres) alongside Hugo Auradou, Mickael Guillard and Paul Boudehent.

Tighthead: 18 caps between three men

The position has been France’s biggest headache since Uini Atonio retired with 68 caps. With Demba Bamba (thigh) and Regis Montagne (calf) injured, and Dorian Aldegheri left out, the three tightheads selected have 18 caps between them.

Falatea is the only one to have started every game for his club, Top 14 and Champions Cup included. Karl Sorin, 23, back at La Rochelle after a loan at Soyaux-Angouleme, has seized his chance since Atonio’s departure. Galthie admitted on Canal+ in late September that the pool of tightheads was thin: “We did some research with the national technical department and we think we need to review the way we identify and develop them.”

Alldritt and Penaud recalled, Fickou and Baille still out

Gregory Alldritt (58 caps) had not played for France since November 2025. He benefits from Nouchi’s absence and will compete with Marko Gazzotti at No 8. Damian Penaud, France’s all-time leading try scorer with 41 in 60 Tests, is also back. Other senior men miss out: Gael Fickou (98 caps), Cyril Baille (57) and Anthony Jelonch, back from injury.

Seven uncapped, including Tani Vili

Seven players are yet to win a cap: Tani Vili and Jeremy Ward (Stade Francais), Karl Sorin (La Rochelle), Axel Desperes (Pau), Theo Forner (Perpignan), Esteban Capilla (Bayonne) and Mathis Ferte (Toulon). A centre who can also cover the back row, Vili extended his Stade Francais deal to 2029 this summer. Ward, 30, has been called up but will only become eligible next year.

Bordeaux to the fore

Bordeaux Begles have nine players in the squad, La Rochelle six. In total the group has 797 caps, 63 of them for Antoine Dupont, the most capped of the 42.

The 42-man squad

Forwards

Backs

Caps as of 21 October 2026.