“Why did you entrust the captaincy to Baptiste Serin?
He is the most experienced player. He is 30 years old, more than 40 caps (44). He is coming off a very good season with his club (Toulon). For us, he is an essential player in terms of leadership, game management and experience. This allows the other players to focus on performance. It is really a team that has almost zero collective experience. The players will have to work hard and control the emotion linked to the first selection, to the opponent. We are aware of the enormous challenge we have to take on.
How did you build your team?
We have been working on this project for three weeks. First of all, it is a great joy to experience what we have experienced, first in Marcoussis then the integration of the semi-finalists, the trip and the training in Buenos Aires. It is a great challenge for us and for the players. We build the team with the best players and the best in the position, it is the principle of a selection. Here, it is the best team of the moment, taking into account the context and the choices made upstream. We try to find the team in the profiles but the first criterion is the best player in his position at the moment.
“This tour will be a growth accelerator: a test match and a selection, it’s the equivalent of a year of experience as a rugby player”
What do you expect from this tour?
This may be one of the last tours. They will disappear. On tour, you go, you immerse yourself with a group, you live, you play matches. It’s an opportunity to experience something that resembles the origins of rugby, the birth of a group, it’s an opportunity to experience a special moment, a little out of touch for a group of kids. It’s a great moment of personal development.
From previous tours, in Australia, in Japan, some Premium players were born. I am willing to bet that five or six players will also be Premium for the coming years. We have some nuggets here. This tour will be a growth accelerator: a test match and a selection, it is the equivalent of a year of experience as a rugby player. These players will return with a good background, additional assets, and above all a vision, an ambition, a rigor that can only be beneficial.
How do you judge Argentina, who you face on Saturday and the following weekend?
It’s a team that, culturally, is very combative. It’s very solid in the scrum phases, in the ruck phases. A very tough team. It has significantly evolved its rugby to meet international standards. The Argentinians are capable of offering, beyond conquest, alternating rugby, made of speed, a pressure foot game. It’s a new cycle for them but they are among the best in the world. It’s their first match since the World Cup, with a new coach (Felipe Contepomi) and a few changes in the staff. They are starting their season, for us, it’s the end.”
