France Women adapting to new coach

Editor

France’s women’s team are in a race against time to adapt to the methods of their new head coach, Samuel Cherouk.

That was the word from les Bleus captain and hooker Gaëlle Mignot ahead of their Six Nations opener against England at Twickenham on February 4.

France are the tournament’s defending champions after winning four out of five matches under the guidance of Jean-Michel Gonzalez and Philippe Laurent in 2016.

The duo left their positions during December which meant Cherouk had very little time to prepare France’s squad for the Six Nations.

The return to the 15-a-side code for players like Elodie Guiglion and Camille Gassineau – after a stint with France’s Sevens team at last year’s Rio Olympics – has been a boost for the squad, however they are still learning to become a coherent team.

“The players and coach are still learning to know each other and we are working together,” Mignot told the Six Nations website.

“Obviously we have a big match, our first match is against England, we are going into our training camp and it’s a learning curve.

“We are quite a large group and we are used to working together so the team that came back from the Olympics are bringing added value.

“Especially in terms of speed and we can integrate perfectly well for the Championship.”