When leaving on tour in November with his 42 selected, the French coach assured that he had never thought of resigning. “Especially not. Obviously it touched me, but I can’t stay touched. (…) No, I don’t feel weakened,” he insisted. If he admitted to having come “to the airport” to welcome Oscar Jégou and Hugo Auradou, Fabien Galthié said he agreed with the positions of his boss Florian Grill not to select his players in the absence of dismissal.
“33% of players are vulnerable to alcohol”
Faced with the “unacceptable” slip-ups that occurred during the tour in Argentina, Fabien Galthié wishes to “rethink” his way of experiencing rugby, in particular by mentioning the problem of alcohol consumption. “In a rugby team, I think that 33% of players do not drink alcohol at all despite the fact that they have been educated with this presence; 33% drink but control it very well and finally 33% have weaknesses in relation to their childhood, in relation to the fact that very early on, sometimes on the bus, they started to drink,” estimated the Blues coach.
After leaving his players for a while without control, Fabien Galthié estimated that “this mechanism which worked on co-construction, and also on experience and trust, slipped slowly to arrive at what happened”, “untolerable abuse” even if we should not “stigmatize a few moments over five years of living together, 52 matches, 80 weeks”.
To correct the situation, the coach of the XV of France will put in place a three-point charter. “First the relationship with alcohol. Without authorization, it is prohibited. Point 2 concerns self-medication. Everything must be declared. Finally, the third point prohibits the presence of foreign people in our living space, unless authorized,” explained Fabien Galthié.
