From now on, the Blues must beat Wales, holding limp, in Cardiff to offer themselves a final in apotheosis against England, at the Stade de France, on March 19.

But beware!

Fabien Galthié's men have already found themselves in such a situation: in 2020, they had already won their first three matches before tripping over the mat on the 4th day and finishing the Tournament in 2nd place.

At the time, the XV of France had lost all its hopes of a title at Murrayfield, at the end of a match (28-17) where nothing had gone in its direction: the hooker Camille Chat had to forfeit the last minute, the third line François Cros had received a yellow card after 4 minutes of play, the opener Romain Ntamack, concussed, had left the field shortly after (8th) then the right pillar Mohamed Haouas (37th) had suffered a a red card for a punch.

In the process, the pandemic had put the competition on hold.

Two years later, the Habs have visibly progressed, with obvious collective experience, a little more maturity too.

And a status of favorites that they now assume.

"Winning the Tournament has been a goal from the start. When you attack a competition, it's to win it", first assured the third line François Cros.

"Cautious"

"We're going to be very careful. It's our first away win, it's very good but we still have another game in Wales, which is going to be complicated, before the reception of England. We're going to move forward cautiously by continuing to work as we have been doing since the beginning and above all without getting inflamed. We had a bit of the same situation two years ago and it didn't go well. We don't want to repeat that." , then tempered the Toulousain.

But these Blues are chaining key successes with a certain brilliance: they beat Australia (28-26) "Down Under" for the first time in 31 years, dominated Welsh (27-23) and Irish (15-13 ) at home for the first time since 2010 and 2011 respectively, rocked the English world vice-champions with a second team (22-19 defeat after extra time) or knocked out the legendary All Blacks (40-25)...

What to delight Fabien Galthié?

"In international rugby, you have to win matches: you only exist through victory. You have to win matches, even by one point. Every victory counts. Every victory is a stone that you put on the wall that you we have been trying to build since the beginning of this mandate. Our defeats also teach us a lot: we learned a lot from our defeat here two years ago, it served us a lot, "said the coach.

French winger Damian Penaud after scoring the sixth try for the XV of France in the 36-17 victory over Scotland on Saturday February 26, 2022 in Edinburgh.

ANDY BUCHANAN AFP/Archives

His team now seems armed to win: at Murrayfield on Saturday, they suffocated the Scots.

It mainly has XXL players, from Antoine Dupont to Cyrille Baille via Gaël Fickou or Damian Penaud.

And a bit of luck too at times, like when the back Stuart Hogg drops a trial balloon on his own (38th).

The players also managed to overcome an unusual lack of success from their striker Melvyn Jaminet (3/7).

The mark of future champions?

The center of La Rochelle Jonathan Danty puts the kibosh: "We will ask ourselves the question if we win in Wales. We still have a match in Cardiff, which will allow us to dream, possibly, of a Grand Slam. We want to go up in power and, if that leads us to win the Grand Slam, we will not deprive ourselves of it."

© 2022 AFP