Former All Blacks fly-half Aaron Cruden believes that France will be a ‘great challenge’ for Scott Robertson’s side, regardless of which players arrive in New Zealand.
The Six Nations champions are bound to field a largely changed team to the one that won the Championship earlier this year when they tackle the All Blacks in Dunedin, Wellington and Hamilton in July.
A deal between the French Rugby Federation and the LNR – the governing body of the professional clubs in France – means that France head coach Fabien Galthie is unable to select any players involved in the Top 14 final for the tour to New Zealand.
Galthie has also picked out 20 premium players who also cannot feature for Les Blues in July. It’s become a norm for France with the likes of Antoine Dupont and other stars missing the tours to Australia and Argentina in recent years.
“France have a great chance”
While France are set to be without many of their best players, 2011 World Cup winner Cruden, who played for Montpellier between 2017 and 2019, believes that Les Bleus will be a real challenge for Robertson’s men.
“They’ve got a great chance and I don’t think it matters to the players who comes or who doesn’t come,” Cruden told AFP.
“As a rugby fan, you’re a little bit disappointed because you’d love to see the best French side go against the best All Black side.
“Even if it is a so-called – I don’t really like the term – second or third string French team, the depth in France at the moment is crazy.
“They will come over here, absolutely relish the opportunity, I really reckon it’s going to be an awesome Test series.”
Galthie has often used the July series as an opportunity to build depth and give younger players the chance to force their way up the pecking the order. The team has greatly benefitted from this tactic with a player like lock Mickael Guillard impressing this Six Nations after making the most of his chance in Argentina last year. The same is true for players like Oscar Jegou and Théo Attissogbe.
Former World Rugby Player of the Year Dupont is one of the premium players but is also sidelined through injury. However, France have plenty of depth at scrum-half with Maxime Lucu and Nolann Le Garrec proven Test quality players, while Top 14 stars like Baptiste Serin and Baptiste Couilloud are both outstanding talents and that kind of depth extends to many positions in the squad.
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Hard to judge Scott Robertson
Robertson’s first year in charge of the All Blacks was not without its hiccups as New Zealand fell to back-to-back defeats to the Springboks in South Africa.
That came after a series victory over England, while New Zealand did manage a win over Ireland in Dublin, they would fall to a defeat to France in Paris.
Reflecting on Robertson’s first year in charge, Cruden believes that it is too early to really judge the new All Blacks boss with 2025 giving a real indication of how well he is doing as their World Cup preparations gather pace.
“His first season was a little bit up and down, and he’d probably say that as well, but also there was a lot of new staff coming in and it’s hard to judge it just off one year,” Cruden said.
“It’s a great challenge to have France coming over here first up for a three-Test series.
“I think it’s still probably too early to judge for me right now but certainly possibly by the end of this Test year you’ll get a real indication of the growth and possibly what the All Blacks team is going to be for the next few years leading into that World Cup in Australia.”
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Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/ex-all-blacks-playmaker-warns-scott-robertson-of-crazy-french-threat-ahead-of-awesome-test-series
