Being on the starting grid, if not being “in pole position”, is the sine qua non for the French team less than a year from the Rugby World Cup to be held in France ( September 2023). At the microphone ofEurope 1 SportBernard Laporte is formal, “the current French team is one of the best teams in the world.”
The Blues therefore have every chance for the meeting of world rugby. And that will go through a first test, during the fall tour next November. The list of 42 selected Blues unveiled last week suggests a solid and combative team that has every chance of performing. The first shock of this tour will take place on November 5 against Australia, at the Stade de France.
The enthusiasm of the French public
The current president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) is counting on a French team carried by a French public at the rendezvous. “This team is popular. We have lived through many years of scarcity and here we are seeing the light again with endearing boys like Romain Ntamack or Cyril Baille”, certified the former coach of the Blues in the Sports decision makers.
This enthusiasm is made possible by the transmission of strong values conveyed by these current players and who “sweat for the jersey of France”, justified Bernard Laporte. And proof is, the upcoming World Cup on French soil has never been so expected. More than 2.6 million tickets, all matches combined, have already been sold, with “very strong foreign demand”. “After the Covid period, it is the need to come together”, explained Bernard Laporte.
Judging next December
In addition to this sports news, the former coach of the Blues is going through a difficult period. Judged on December 13, Bernard Laporte lives in expectation. According to the national financial prosecutor’s office, the former coach of the XV of France would have made a series of arbitrations favorable to the Altrad group led by Mohed Altrad, the current president of the Montpellier rugby club, in return for the payment of 180,000 euros in March 2017.
As a reminder, the financial prosecutor François-Xavier Dulin had demanded a heavy sentence of three years in prison, including one firm, and a fine of 50,000 euros against Bernard Laporte. But the rugby enthusiast “trusts justice”. “I will comply with any legal decision,” said the main interested party in Europe 1 Sport.