Fabien Galthié has broken his silence. In comments reported by our colleagues at Sud-Ouest, the France head coach returned to the remarks made by Fred Quercy. As a reminder, the Montauban captain had described his former coach at Montpellier (between 2012 and 2014) as a “human sh**” during the pre-season media day at Rugby Pass.

“He is a player I coached in the 2010s at Montpellier, in my last two years there. A young player, from the same generation as Eric Escande, whom I then coached at Toulon. They all played in the Top 14“, Galthié begins. Before going deeper into Quercy’s offensive comments. “I can hear it, I can even understand it. I have been coaching for around 20 years. And I have always tried to coach as well as I possibly could. I have always thrown myself into that task, without compromise. I have also racked up 150 Test matches, as captain with France, as coach of Argentina and then alongside Jacques Brunel, and finally as head coach : I am still trying to improve, to get better“.

“A shame he can’t play”

He adds: “And on that, I am uncompromising in my own self-criticism. What he says, I can hear it and I can understand it […] There you go, it was 15 years ago, if I had it to do again, I would do it differently“. After looking back over his personal history, the France head coach said he had told the Montauban board “not to apologise“. More importantly still, he finds it “a shame that he can’t play“.

“We took the view that he had crossed the boundary of freedom of expression, that he had reached the point of insult in the media“

Sylvain Deroeux, the FFR general secretary

It is worth noting that the licence of the promoted club’s captain had indeed been suspended and that the player found out through a letter from the Fédération française de rugby. “We took the view that he had crossed the boundary of freedom of expression, that he had reached the point of insult in the media. The comments are not tolerable. So, as we do with plenty of cases, we referred it to the disciplinary committee of the Fédération française de rugby“, Sylvain Deroeux, the FFR general secretary, told Midi Libre.

Still not back on the pitch, the Sapiac warrior is waiting for his appearance before the LNR disciplinary committee, scheduled for Wednesday 15 October. In the meantime, Fabien Galthié has calmed things down while the media storm rumbles on…