France team v All Blacks: Five takeaways as Maxime Lucu captaincy call ‘symbolic’ in ‘no B-team’ selection from Fabien Galthie
Fabien Galthie (right) has named his 23-man squad to face the All Blacks
Following the announcement of France’s 23-man squad to face the All Blacks at the One New Zealand Stadium, Christchurch, here are our five takeaways from Fabien Galthie’s selection.
Symbolic captaincy call
A lot of the noise in the build-up to this game centred on the call-up and subsequent withdrawal of Antoine Dupont, but in the background, Galthie was preparing to give his main rival Maxime Lucu the captain’s armband.
Yes, Dupont would have never been in contention for this Test, with the Top 14 finalists heading straight for Australia, but with Lucu taking on captaincy duties, it seems he might have been in pole position to start no matter what.
Lucu has been in the form of his life this season for Bordeaux-Begles, powering them to a second successive Investec Champions Cup title back in May and winning Player of the Match in the showpiece final against Leinster, and at points during the Six Nations was looking like potentially emerging from Dupont’s shadow to start alongside clubmate Matthieu Jalibert.
Now, Galthie has given him the chance to shine alongside his long-term partner-in-crime, and he’s done it while giving him the captaincy as well.
To be fair, there aren’t actually that many other candidates that jump out at you for the role, other than Lucu. Damian Penaud is a potential option considering his experience compared to the rest of the team, Jefferson Poirot is among the key leaders for Bordeaux-Begles and boasts a healthy number of Test caps despite an extended absence and Galthie could easily have looked to build for the future with one of his emerging starlets, but instead, he’s gone for Lucu. He’s gone for a man who has had to bide his time at this level, sitting underneath the previous incumbent.
It all feels rather symbolic. A changing of the guard, if you will. Lucu might be the main man going forward.
In from the cold
One of the biggest shocks from Galthie’s Six Nations squad selection was the omission of Penaud. At the time, he was reigning European Player of the Year after starring for Bordeaux-Begles in their 2024/25 Investec Champions Cup title success and one of the first names on the France teamsheet, then, without so much as a warning, he was dropped.
But, he’s now back in the picture again, and it seems that absence has changed his game somewhat.
Even as recently as the Autumn Nations Series, Penaud was a bit of a maverick within the France attack. Capable of doing some magical things ball-in-hand, but at the same time, his relaxed approach would often clash with France’s desire to rip teams apart. And that was arguably what saw him axed from the wider squad entirely ahead of the Six Nations. Now, while he still has his beautiful flashes of genuine excellence, it’s part of a much more complete, calmer game.
His move to 13 has probably aided that along, and adds an interesting new dynamic, but he just seems to have stripped everything back down, re-focused on the things that he does so well and taken all of those other moments out.
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That’s probably what Galthie wanted to see from him. That’s probably why he’s been whisked back into the starting side. And it could be potent for France as well.
Changing tack?
Not long ago, France’s bench was all about power. Their 2025 Six Nations title win was built around the 7:1 split and blowing teams away with their physicality. Their 2026 Six Nations title win was a similar vibe, just with a 6:2 split on the bench.
Now, though, Galthie has seemingley turned away from that after picking a 5:3 split and a traditional deployment of a scrum-half, a fly-half and an outside back.
Changing style like that, for a side that rivalled the Springboks in their use of the forward-heavy bench, is really interesting. It suggests France looking to play a more expansive style late in the day. Before, France would just let their behemoths come off the bench, cause havoc and let the backline do the rest, but while he has still got some big boppers on the bench, he has opted
This is maybe also a reflection of where the Test game is headed? Yes, physicality up front will always win you Test matches, but as we saw in the Six Nations, it needed fizz around it. It’s not enough to just beat people up anymore.
Champagne
Building on that idea, France’s backline is built for proper attacking play. The aforementioned Penaud forms an exciting back-three with Max Spring and Théo Attissogbé, a combination built around speed and playing in broken field. Attissogbé and Spring can also interchange with each other, given they can both play wing and full-back, which could see them pop up in different spaces across the backline and act as more floating options.
Within that, the centre combination of Fabien Brau-Boirie and Yoram Moefana gives France two game-breakers in midfield. Both men did that puncy ball-carrying centre role well during the Six Nations, with 12 on their backs, but having both of them together just again adds a nice lick of dynamism to this attack. Crucially, it also gives Jalibert two big options outside of him, which will only complement his running game.
The half-back pairing of the aforementioned Bordeaux duo has also worked wonders and will likely transition superbly into the Blue jersey. Lucu and Jalibert just read each other’s game perfectly, with the scrum-half the general and the fly-half the creative threat, and in turn can play some genuinely beautiful rugby off the back of it.
The one question France’s attack probably had lingering over it from the Six Nations was how two running threats (Dupont and Jalibert) could co-exist in the same system, but this just takes that out entirely and could actually generate a really delicious style.
Respectable selection
The chatter from last year was that France ran a rotated team to take on the All Blacks. The same has been pushed against them this year, too, made even louder by their Top 14 finalists heading straight to Australia, but when you look at this squad on paper, it’s no B-team.
Moefana, Jalibert, Lucu, Attissogbé, Oscar Jégou, Régis Montagne and Mickaël Guillard all played major roles during the Six Nations title win earlier this year. Nicolas Depoortere would have been as well had it not been for his injury. Elsewhere, Brau-Boirie also played a role, while Penaud and Nolann le Garrec have also won silverware with Les Bleus.
Even around them, Marko Gazzotti feels like becoming a crucial part of this squad for years to come, Tom Staniforth is enjoying a good run of form, Poirot has ended his Test retirement and comes into the Nations Championship in great touch following his exploits with Bordeaux.
Is it their absolute full-noise squad? No. Is it a strong team? For sure.
