Following the conclusion of the 2025 Six Nations, we update you on the state of the participating nations. Lastly, it’s the champions, Fabien Galthie’s France.
Glorious champions, but defeated by England to rob them of a Grand Slam.
On paper a fantastic result for Les Bleus, especially considering the loss of their talisman, Antoine Dupont, in the Irish game, but it was the growth of Galthie’s side with ball in hand, together with some coaching revolutions, (albeit Rassie-inspired), which are the biggest talking points of France’s campaign.
The loss to England perhaps takes the tiniest bit of gloss out of their season, a match where a queue of world class players conspired to drop the ball when threatened with the sight of the tryline, but on balance, it’s hard to score France less than an A minus.
Six Nations summary
Nobody does Six Nations under lights better than France. A thrilling opening to the competition in Paris saw all manner of fireworks, cannons, and lasers light up Stade de France, followed by a truly magnificent demolition of Wales led by that man Dupont. 43-0 was the scoreline, and other than a doughty knock by Jac Morgan in adversity, Wales were lucky to get zero.
Travelling to Twickenham to face a beleaguered England who were soundly beaten in Dublin by Ireland in Round One, France were the red hot favourites for another win against Les Rosbifs, but a litany of unfinished chances in the first half saw the hosts claim the honours from Le Crunch by a point in a pulsating match.
With Italy absolutely caned in Rome, we saw the murmurs of the new French way. Enter La Bombe Squad – the formidable use of some behemoth forwards off the bench in a 7-1 split, to put paid to the second half drop off nonsense that Galthie had pinpointed as a reason why France had lost at Twickenham. Urban legend has it that Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day, but France managed to demolish it in an afternoon.
The big one – Ireland in Dublin – was always going to be the match that decided the tournament and France saved their absolute best performance for when it mattered, all the more remarkable considering the loss of Dupont in the 28th minute. Enter Maxime Lucu, who put in the defining performance of his Test career as he demonstrated to all that if AD9 wasn’t around, the world would be talking about the brilliant skills of the Bordeaux-Begles half-back.
France v Scotland is always an ill-tempered affair and once again the Bravehearts rattled Les Bleus in an extremely competitive performance. One might argue that Peato Mauvaku was lucky to finish the match as he did his very best impression of a human cannonball into Scottish heads, but with Romain Ntamack leading the backs in his Toulouse team-mate’s absence, and François Cros delivering a superhuman defensive effort in the last 20 minutes, France were crowned 2025 Six Nations champions, and rightly so, given that this is truly a generational team.
Standout players
There really are too many to list, but one name stands at the top in red, white, and blue neon lights – Louis Bielle-Biarrey. Everything the Bordeaux-Begles flyer touched (save for a pass at Twickenham) turned to 24 carat gold as he smashed every record going. Eight tries, a tournament record; tries in eight consecutive Tests; assists for another eight. Remarkable stuff and his scrum cap is fully in the ring for the title of best wing in the world.
We’ve mentioned Lucu and his immense contributions in the Irish and Scottish matches, but on the subject of Bordeaux-Begles, the most improved player must be the UBB centre Yoram Moefana, who looks as if he’s finally turned a corner in his progress to being a Test player, topping the backline tackles with 54 and grabbing a couple of vital tries v Scotland.
Up front, the French back-row needed to work out how to fill the immense shoes of Charles Ollivon; enter Paul Boudehent, who even matched the try scoring feats of the Toulon flank as he nailed a brace. But for many, it was the work of the brilliant ruck machine, Cros, that gave France their connectivity between forwards and backs.
The last word on standouts must go La Bombe Squad and a couple of players in particular need a shout out. Oscar Jegou has already attracted a bit of controversy, but the flanker, at 6’2” and 16 stone fairly small by French standards, delivered an epic shift at centre against Ireland as a replacement, but made some telling interventions every time he played. Alongside him, Emmanuel Meafou’s bench role suited him to a tee, and he pummelled all he faced when he trotted on to deliver 30 minutes of mayhem with ball in hand in three Tests.
Stat leaders
Bielle-Biarrey’s eight tries is a new tournament record, and as you might imagine he dominated the attacking stats – 41 carries, eight clean breaks, 311 metres ran. Thomas Ramos wasn’t far behind him in terms of field stats, actually recording more metres than LBB with 323 from 48 carries.
In defence, that man Cros conquered all he saw; just six tackles missed out of 76 shows his incredible accuracy – add in three turnovers and second only to Thibaud Flament (18) in lineout takes and once again, the glue man held everything together, as he topped the tackle count and crucially was the architect of winning a tournament-record 109 attacking rucks. And, alongside Boudehent and Cros in the back-row, Gregory Alldritt carried more than any other, hammering 58 bone crunching forays for 198 metres.
Success story
It must be La Bombe Squad as a unit. It wasn’t so much the tactic as the quality of players delivering the tactic that was the really impressive thing.
Meafou, Cyril Baille, Julien Marchand, Lucu, and Anthony Jelonch are all world class operators in their own right, with something approaching 250 caps between them. They’re all monstrously big, but all have ball handling at the centre of their game, so when France were on the front foot it worked brilliantly. Add in the antics of Jegou, Hugo Auradou and Dorian Algerderi and you will see that the explosion of France’s firecrackers entering the pitch on the 50-minute mark was a key success story in their fantastic campaign.
And lastly, on the subject of success stories – Dupont. France’s biggest success in this tournament was learning that they can close out big matches without the little genius. Sure, they’re a better side with him, but his absence allowed others to grow in both leadership and in-game performance, and that’s absolutely key for France’s development.
Main regret
It must be that England game and losing by a point. If you were cruel, you’d observe that France would have beaten England 99 times out of 100 in this fixture, but that would denude the manner that Steve Borthwick’s team nullified Dupont defensively, as they pulled him to the tramlines to prevent him attacking down both sides of the ruck.
But it was the perfect storm; the first half saw Damian Penaud, Bielle-Biarrey and Dupont blowing absolute run-ins, tries that were there for the taking, yet remained unfinished, possibly due to the damp conditions but more probably due to English defensive pressure, together with a compelling display by the three opensides in the host’s back-row.
Results
France v Wales (France won 43-0)
France v England (England won 26-25)
France v Italy (France won 24-73)
France v Ireland (France won 27-42)
France v Scotland (France won 35-16)
👀 READ MORE: 👉 State of the Nation: England’s ‘attacking revolution’ helps Steve Borthwick’s side ‘realise their potential’
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/state-of-the-nation-frances-growth-and-coaching-revolutions-sets-up-six-nations-triumph
