Find the reactions of the players of the XV of France and their coach Fabien Galthié at the end of their success against Wales this Saturday during the fifth and last day of the 6 Nations Tournament 2023.
Antoine Dupont (scrum half and captain of the XV of France)
“We have to be proud of ourselves. Today (Saturday), we put 40 points to the Welsh who, despite a complicated tournament, remain one of the strongest nations in the world. You know, you like me, that we will always have a lot of regrets depending on the outcome of the Ireland match. We feel that we have strong attacking potential, which is growing, but we are playing to win titles and, if we don’t win this (Saturday) evening, we will be very disappointed. We will support the English, one of the rare times when it will happen, in front of the television like many viewers and we will follow it closely. »
Fabien Galthié (coach of the XV of France)
“Heat like that, we retain the victory of course, the offensive bonus which allows us to have 20 points and to still hope for a favorable result. We don’t have the cards in hand, it’s the Irish who have them and they deserve it. They have been consistent and now they are playing for the Grand Slam and the victory in the Tournament. The mission is not over, we still have the major competition to come. Otherwise, during these 35 games, there have been great moments of happiness, also great moments of disappointment, everything we love. That’s why we play this game, to intensely experience emotions and share, first among ourselves then with our loved ones and all the people who follow us. Four years of shared emotions, great moments with a lot of happiness all the same. A majority of happiness and then an ambition always there. It’s hard to be ambitious at this level. You have to play all the matches to win them and it’s not easy. That’s what we want anyway. If we come here, that’s why. »
Romain Ntamack (opening half of the XV of France)
“We knew the Welsh were going to keep their promise. We tend to have buried them a little easily on this Tournament but, with their experience and the players who make up this team, we knew that it was not going to be an easy game. We saw it well in the first 20 minutes where, despite everything, they put a lot of rhythm. They took us a bit at our own game and we had a little trouble reacting even if the end of the first half was good. Despite a small ten-minute air gap, the second half was pretty good overall. We have no regrets to have about this game. I think we did the right thing and, despite everything, we can be happy with ourselves in this tournament. We gained a lot of confidence offensively last week and today (Saturday) it was felt a little. We focused on it all week where we had to work on these automatisms in defense. I think we did it pretty well. The system was well implemented between last week and today (Saturday), we can be happy with that. Afterwards, there will always be things to settle defensively. We take 26 points, there are still things to correct. I think we could have taken a lot less but, at the end of the Tournament, we are still happy. We went through a bit of all the emotions. We had a bit of a complicated start to the Tournament and then we caught up pretty well afterwards. It shows that this team must learn from this tournament, much more than last year. We will use all these experiences and all these emotions for what awaits us in September. »
Source : France 2
