Galthié has named 33 players to take on the All Blacks, with nine Top 14 finalists to follow. Our data on the minutes played this season, for club and for France, sheds light on his choices: a squad in which seventeen of those travelling have yet to play a single international minute.
Courted from all sides, Théo Attissogbe has made his choice: the 21-year-old international wing-cum-full-back has extended with Section Paloise until 2029. A strong signal from a Béarn club that is managing to hold on to its gems.
Fabien Galthié has gathered 39 players to prepare for the Nations Championship. Maxime Lucu as captain, twelve Bordeaux players, some notable absentees (Fickou, Bielle-Biarrey) and not a single Toulouse man: here is the France squad before the southern hemisphere tour.
Toulouse are chasing a historic fourth straight title, Montpellier are playing the outsiders: on Saturday at the Stade de France, the Top 14 final pits two radically different approaches to squad management against each other. Our data confirms it - strength in depth on one side, a hard core on the other.
According to L'Équipe, Antoine Dupont has expressed a desire to join up with France in the southern hemisphere after the Top 14 final. Nothing official, but a credible possibility: the Toulouse man would miss the clash with the All Blacks but could play against Australia and Japan.
Dave Rennie has named his 34 All Blacks for the Nations Championship. Without their captain Scott Barrett and several injured senior men, New Zealand open against France on 4 July in Christchurch.
Solid and disciplined, Montpellier beat Stade Français (25-15) in the Top 14 semi-final on Saturday in Marseille. MHR join Stade Toulousain in the final, on 27 June at the Stade de France.
Trailing 25-17 with ten minutes left, the Bordeaux side turned Toulouse around in the money time to win 27-25. A Morgane Bourgeois penalty on 80 minutes sends the three-time defending champions into the final.
Stade Toulousain were supposed to be shaky. They answered with a 71-17 — the biggest win in the history of a Top 14 semi-final. Ten tries, a dazzling Antoine Dupont on his return and a surgical Romain Ntamack off the tee: Racing 92 never existed. The only sour note: Santiago Chocobares' concussion.
The Pro D2 has its finalists. Next Saturday at the Stadium de Toulouse, Vannes, the undisputed leaders of the regular season, take on Provence Rugby, the outsiders who turned Colomiers over away from home. Before the big day, we look back at their semi-finals and put their seasons under the microscope: who should make up their starting XV?
At 21, Manuel Vareiro will play the first Pro D2 final of his career on Saturday in Toulouse with Provence Rugby. Signed in the summer of 2025 and developed at GD Direito in Lisbon, the Portugal international wing and goal-kicker has become, in a matter of months, one of the Aix club's major attacking weapons. Portrait of a lightning rise.
Scott Barrett will undergo back surgery this week. The All Blacks captain will be out for three to five months, missing the tour and the Nations Championship.
Will Jordan will miss the end of the Super Rugby Pacific season and his status for facing France in July remains unclear after a further worsening of a muscle problem.
Summoned on Wednesday before the Ligue Nationale de Rugby disciplinary panel, Ronan O'Gara has been cleared. The Stade Rochelais manager escapes any sanction over his behaviour during the match against Toulouse in round 24.
Jacques Raynaud, the head of EPCR, defends French dominance in the Champions Cup. Rather than a structural imbalance, the administrator sees it as a simple sporting cycle, while stressing the growing involvement of the South African franchises.
After three seasons in Japan, Cheslin Kolbe comes full circle. The two-time South African world champion has confirmed his return to the Stormers to kick-start his career again in the URC.
Two finals, two titles, sixteen wins in a row. At San Mamés, Union Bordeaux-Bègles took Leinster apart (41-19) and completed a Champions Cup back-to-back that puts Maxime Lucu, Damian Penaud, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and their gang in the pantheon of European rugby. A collective portrait of a team that has become a dynasty without losing any of its easy-going nature.
