Paris (AFP)
The XV of France turns the page on the outbreak of Covid-19 infections and the "waffle scandal" with the reinforcements of Romain Ntamack and Virimi Vakatawa to prepare for the duel in England on Saturday and continue its victorious dynamic in the Six Nations Tournament .
After three tumultuous weeks, the players returned to the rural setting of the National Rugby Center on Sunday in Marcoussis (Essonne).
They will have barely six days to prepare the "crunch" with the hope that the cascade of contaminations which caused the postponement of the match against Scotland will have left no trace and will not weaken their quest for a first title since 2010 .
Of the eight holders infected between February 19 and 25, two are absent from the list of 31 players communicated on Sunday: the Montpellier center Arthur Vincent, insufficiently recovered, and the Toulon winger Gabin Villière, unavailable for six weeks and therefore for the rest of the Tournament after injuring a hand on Saturday with his club.
The entire first row, made up of left pillar Cyril Baille, hooker Julien Marchand and right pillar Mohamed Haouas, figure her in the group as well as captain and third row Charles Ollivon, scrum half Antoine Dupont and back Brice Dulin .
Toulon second row Romain Taofifenua, replacing in the first two matches of the Tournament won in Italy (50-10) then in Ireland (15-13), has also finished with the Covid-19 and finds the group.
The French Rugby Federation (FFR) had reported a total of sixteen positive cases between February 16 and 25, or twelve players and four members of the management including coach Fabien Galthié.
- Compliance with health rules -
The latter had been implicated for having come out of the health bubble to attend a match of his son on February 7.
Players had also been spotted enjoying waffles on the streets of Rome ahead of the game in Italy.
But nothing that deserves blame, ruled Friday the Minister in charge of Sports, Jean-Michel Blanquer, under the approving gaze of the president of the FFR, Bernard Laporte, after a "frank explanation" to the ministry.
"Well developed" and "respected" according to the government official, the protocol will however be strengthened, warned the Minister for Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, present during this interview.
"Now, no more leaving the hotel: it's belt and suspenders," insisted Laporte.
Until the end of the Tournament, two people are responsible for ensuring that the rules are respected on a daily basis: the manager of the XV of France Raphaël Ibanez and a state executive who is the national technical director (DTN) of French rugby Didier Retière according to the Midi Olympique newspaper.
- Which training partners?
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Who will lend a hand to the Blues for the oppositions to training, knowing that according to the internal investigation conducted by the FFR, it is precisely a sparring partner, in this case a player of the French team at VII, who introduced the virus to the Quinzists?
It could be players under 20 who are immune, as Laporte suggested on Friday.
"But if we are told that there is no training partner, there will not be one," he added.
In Marcoussis, the main task of the staff will be to restore balance to players lacking playing time. Dupont and Ollivon, to name a few, have not replayed since the success in Dublin on February 14.
But there is also good news with the returns of Ntamack and Vakatawa, two indisputable holders forfeits at the start of the Tournament.
The first had suffered a double jaw fracture at the end of December and the second had injured a knee at the end of January.
They both resumed competition on Saturday in the Top 14.
In the radius of injury returns are also the replacement hooker Camille Chat (calf) and Lyonnais Baptiste Couilloud (ribs), N.3 in the hierarchy of scrum halfs behind Baptiste Serin and Dupont.
© 2021 AFP