France head coach Galthie, captain Ollivon & Lucu discuss team announcement

Fabien Galthié, coach

On selecting Anthony Jelonch over François Cros in the back row:

“François [Cros] has always played well for us. Anthony Jelonch is back, he has played twice and needs a third game.

“These are back-row profiles that we need to play together. It’s also a vision for the future, for the management of playing time, the experience of the back row combined with the second row. 

"But I repeat, François Cros has never let us down, and is to be credited with some very good performances for the French national team.

On the idea of hitting ‘peak form’:

“We have a preparation plan based on the number of weeks since July 1. It’s a 14-week plan, and we’re in week 14.

“The competition is now a knockout, and we have choices to make. This is our eighth match since August, and we’re where we wanted to be. But the answer will be given on the pitch on Friday."

On the Lucu-Jalibert half-back pairing:

"Max [Lucu] has never let us down; he’s always performed well in the French team. He plays a lot for the team in both attack and defence. He's courageous, he's effectively a ninth forward.

"He and Matthieu Jalibert complement each other. Matthieu is an experienced 10 who's been with us for four years, and he’ll be there for us again. The fact that they play together on a daily basis means they’re close and know how to play off each other.

"They’re our half-backs primarily thanks to their level of rugby and the performances they've already achieved with us."

On the 5-3 bench split:

"When we select a team, we start with the finishers, and then the starting line-up. The choice of the 23 is linked to form and availability. We’ve got two absentees [Antoine Dupont and Julien Marchand], so we’ve picked from the 31 players available to build a team that we think will perform best on Friday.

“It’s a 5-3 bench, bearing in mind that [centre] Yoram Moefana finished the match against Namibia in the back row.”

On lessons from the New Zealand-Italy match:

“We know [Italy] well, we’ve played them five times in four years. The last match in Rome was difficult for us [France won 29-24].

“We’re going up against a wounded team, and we’re expecting a very strong reaction from them. They’ve made some changes, and some players are back in the starting line-up. They have everything to gain.”

On the choice of captain: 

"Charles [Ollivon] was our captain at the start of the cycle. [He’s been] a great captain. He was seriously injured, and it was a difficult road to get back.

“He’s here, just as Jelonch is here, Marchand is here and Dupont is here. This group of players sometimes goes through difficult times, but they’re all here.”

On the selection of wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey (pictured) over Gabin Villière:

“Form varies, whether it’s physical, mental, or both. Our reading is always as careful and as accurate as we can make it.

“These choices are made at the time, they’re snapshots. To say that he has overtaken [Gabin Villière] is to put it in quotation marks, or in brackets.”

Charles Ollivon, flanker and captain

On taking the captaincy:

“Not much has changed. We have a group of leaders, and everyone is free to express their feelings. There wasn’t much difference, apart from the fact that Antoine [Dupont] wasn’t there. It was a simple week, very natural, nothing more.”

On Italy:

“We’ve no doubt that Italy won’t play the same way as they did against New Zealand. We had a good debrief on the match we played against them in February during the Six Nations Tournament.

“We didn't dwell on the New Zealand match. It's going to be a completely different game, with no doubt a higher level of commitment and fewer missed tackles.

“We expect a lot of commitment in the first 20 minutes. It’s up to us to be consistent for 80 minutes. It’s going to be a tough game.”

Maxime Lucu, scrum-half

On the importance of the match against Italy:

“This is effectively a knockout match. Either you go on to a quarter-final or you go home, so the tension is a bit higher. The details are more important, and we’ve worked more on analysis. It’s getting very serious now, and Friday is a perfect example [of that].”

On New Zealand’s performance against Italy:

"The All Blacks’ performance in the first 20 minutes, in particular, is an example to follow: four lineouts, score four times. Their discipline was perfect. New Zealand played a really classy match. We have to learn from them, be pragmatic and rigorous.

“We’ve regularly given away 15 penalties against Italy. We need to implement the game and the strategy we’ve worked on. If we let them have the ball too easily, they’re a formidable team."

On playing with Matthieu Jalibert for club and country:

“I don’t think he's any different at club level than he is in blue. The game is completely different at Bordeaux and in the French team, particularly our ethos of dispossession and repossession.

“Matthieu showed against New Zealand that he was ready when needed. He’s an international player, and he has the opportunity to play at the World Cup as ‘number one’ in his position.”

On his playing relationship with Jalibert:

“When you play or train with someone every day, you get to know them. I’ve played a lot with Matthieu at Bordeaux. We get on really well and spend a lot of time together. Of course, we play for the same club, so bonds are formed, a bit like Antoine [Dupont] and Romain [Ntamack] at Stade Toulousain. Starting alongside each other is a big deal for both of us.”