Marcoussis (France) (AFP)
One has already experienced a World Cup and the hell of the Millennium; the other is the incumbent of the moment, victorious over England and Italy: Camille Chat and Julien Marchand vie for the hooker position, before the shock in Wales for the Six Nations on Saturday.
Long in the shadow of the captain of the Blues Guilhem Guirado, Camille Chat hoped to don the incumbent costume with the Tournament-2020, four years after his first selection. But an injury to a calf forced him to throw in the towel for the first two meetings.
Now restored, the Racingman faces the competition of its double, 24 years like him, the Toulouse driver Julien Marchand, who won during the victorious Crunch at the Stade de France (24-17), participating in the hoped-for renewal of the French rugby, then against Italy (35-22).
It is a rich problem to have two potential holders in this key position but Fabien Galthié and his staff will still have to choose who will start, number 2 in the back, a decisive poster in the hunt for the first Tournament since 2010.
. The experience with Chat
Will the Racingman's 26 selections - including eight as the incumbent - take precedence? In the mind of the coach in any case, Chat was supposed, before his injury, to hold.
Feeling the wind turn after the World Cup in Japan, where he took up more space and insurance, Chat recognized him: "My status has changed, that's for sure. Already, it's no longer the captain, my competitor".
He also knows it, competition is an "eternal recommencement", today against Marchand, but also with the other Toulouse Peato Mauvaka, number 3 in the hierarchy, and Teddy Baubigny, his Racing teammate.
Former hooker, four times champion of France with the Stade Français, Mathieu Blin sees cat holder: "I am to put back (the pillar Jefferson) Poirot and Cat, not a sanction against (Cyril) Baille and Marchand, who were very good, but to maintain healthy competition, alternate between the one that starts and the one that ends. "
. Continuity with Marchand
If Chat has experience on his side, Marchand has continuity with his. Galthié says it over and over, he wants to "build a team", "+ get + the players". If we follow this logic, Marchand could continue.
Returning from a rupture of the cruciate ligaments of the left knee, a year ago against ... the Welsh, an injury which deprived him of the World Cup, Marchand has since shown himself without apprehension for his first two tenures in Blue, facing solid English and Italian packs, with a big defensive presence, many successful tackles and a constant commitment.
The captain of Toulouse, defending champion of France, is in any case "not revengeful" after this long absence, "just happy to be there", to "relive this adventure in Blue, which had been very brief there is a year old. "
Mathieu Blin underlines, in his favor, his complementarity with Cyril Baille, his first line companion in Toulouse: "It is facilitating, they are used to working together. We need an ability to have collective benchmarks, reflexes which only come with experience and which are necessarily optimized when playing in a club, for grips in melee or combinations in touch ".
Undoubtedly the most complicated sector to manage for Marchand, with hazardous launches at the start of this tournament, the key, precisely, could it tip the scales?
Not sure. These flats, Cat also wiped them during the World Cup: "I was criticized for a throw against Argentina, after there were no worries", tempers the interested party, "there is this image who follows me but I know where I'm going from and where I'm going ". In Cardiff, where the Blues have not won for ten years.
© 2020 AFP