Bordeaux-Bègles’ failure to make the Top 14 play-offs has resulted in them dominating the 28-strong France A squad announced for this Friday’s clash with England A in Vannes.
The reigning two-time Investec Champions Cup champions finished eighth in the league following their last-gasp home loss to Clermont on June 6, and they now have nine players – including long-term international level absentee Jefferson Poirot – named by Fabien Galthié for the Nations Championship warm-up match.
Galthié and his staff were left waiting until the outcome of Sunday night’s second play-off match between Stade Francais and La Rochelle before finalising the French squad that has now assembled for training at Marcoussis.
Stade won through to the semi-finals, joining Toulouse, Racing and Montpellier in next weekend’s last-four line-up in Marseille, leaving Bordeaux to be the club with the largest representation heading into the clash with England A.
Lack of motivation
Their nine-strong contingent consists of two backs – midfielders Yoram Moefana and Nicolas Depoortere – and seven forwards – back-rowers Pierre Bochaton, Marko Gazzotti and Temo Matiu, lock Boris Palu, hooker Maxime Lamothe and props Sipili Falatea and Poirot.
The inclusion of Poirot is eye-catching as it was six years ago when he announced his retirement from Test rugby. Aged 27 at the time, the 36-cap front-rower declared that a lack of motivation following France’s 2019 World Cup quarter-final exit to Wales had convinced him it was best to step away.
He said in 2020: “I feel my motivation is not at its maximum. I always promised myself I would be at 100 per cent when playing for France, to not lie. Les Bleus, it’s the Holy Grail. I can’t go and play for them and just take my cap and my bonus.”
Six years later, though, and now aged 33, the ex-French skipper has come out of retirement and will use this week’s A match as his reintroduction to representative rugby ahead of next month’s Nations Championship, where Galthié will bring a squad of 42 to the southern hemisphere to play New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
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Pau, whose French title chance was extinguished with Saturday’s home play-off loss to Racing, have four representatives in this week’s squad – fly-half Axel Desperes, centre Fabien Brau-Boirie and wingers Grégoire Arfeuil and Théo Attissogbe – while La Rochelle, the weekend’s other play-off faller with their elimination at Stade, have three players at French training – Reda Wardi, Nolann Le Garrec, and Antoine Hastoy.
Clermont provide four players, hooker Barnabé Massa, prop Régis Montagne, flanker Killian Tixeront and scrum-half Baptiste Jauneau, while Castres have three call-ups, Tom Staniforth, Louis Le Brun and the uncapped Christian Ambadiang, a winger of Cameroonian descent.
The French head into the new Nations Championship as the current Six Nations champions following their last-gasp win over England last March in Paris.
Following the completion of the upcoming Top 14 semi-finals, Galthié will name his Nations Championship squad. That France squad can include players who will feature in the Top 14 final on June 28, but those players will be ineligible for the following weekend’s July 4 opener away to the All Blacks in Christchurch.
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France A squad v England A (Vannes, Friday)
Prop (5): Sipili Falatea (UBB), Régis Montagne (Clermont), Jefferson Poirot (UBB), Emerick Setiano (Bayonne), Reda Wardi (La Rochelle).
Hooker (3): Maxime Lamothe (UBB), Lucas Martin (Bayonne), Barnabé Massa (Clermont).
Lock (3): Mickaël Guillard (Lyon), Boris Palu (UBB), Tom Staniforth (Castres).
Back-row (5): Pierre Bochaton (UBB), Esteban Capilla (Bayonne), Marko Gazzotti (UBB), Temo Matiu (UBB), Killian Tixeront (Clermont).
Scrum-half (2): Baptiste Jauneau (Clermont), Nolann Le Garrec (La Rochelle).
Fly-half (3): Axel Desperes (Pau), Antoine Hastoy (La Rochelle), Louis Le Brun (Castres).
Midfield (3): Fabien Brau-Boirie (Pau), Nicolas Depoortere (UBB), Yoram Moefana (UBB).
Wing/full-back (4): Christian Ambadiang (Castres), Grégoire Arfeuil (Pau), Théo Attissogbe (Pau), Mathis Ferté (Toulon).
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