Report – Fabien Galthié (XV of France), in Belvès as in Marcoussis

In Belvès, the village of 1400 in the heart of the Dordogne, Fabien Galthié has chosen to return to school in 2023, this Tuesday evening. This time, he was surrounded not by William Servat, Laurent Labit or Karim Ghezal but by coaches from Stade Belvèsois, who played in the second Federal Division. There was no Antoine Dupont or Grégory Alldritt on the field, but the local team players, some of whom were late for the meeting due to their professional obligations, even if they were greeted with a smile by the coach. As he has always done since the start of his mandate, he wants – through this initiative – to associate amateur rugby with the success of the French XV. Landing on site in the afternoon, he first isolated himself with the coaches to prepare for the session which he was responsible for supervising and organizing. After this first staff “briefing”, Galthié gathered the entire group in the clubhouse to present the program. And he began his speech by asking the players, always intimidated in their seats, to approach him and the board where he would detail the schedule.

Getting ready for the game on Sunday at 3pm.

Then, the technicians move on to something more serious: “Normally you don’t train on a Tuesday night. Together with the coaches, we modified this week’s program to prepare for Sunday’s game, at 3pm. The goal is to get to the top of the game. So we will do the training I usually do on Wednesday with the French team. » An incredible dive into the realities of Marcoussis and international rugby for men kicks off into the federal game. Session name? The same as in the national team: “Ball in play”. Explanation by Fabien Galthié: “The goal is to train with maximum intensity, without slack, to be comfortable with the speed of play and get into match conditions. » The interested party then justifies the interest in continuing in this way, with supporting figures: “An international match is played for 38 minutes, an average of fifty-two places… After ten minutes of warm-up, five individually then five collectively, there will be two teams: likely and probable. There will also be groups of finishers. » Vocabulary the Blues have been hearing for three years.

Shorts, cleats and a whistle in your mouth

Obviously, Fabien Galthié has concocted several sequences that last one minute, one minute and thirty seconds or two minutes, interspersed with reduced rest periods. ” I will adjust the playing time watching you, the trainer insisted. It’s rugby training but also physiological. We’ll see how, exhausted, you will react technically. » Then warn the leaders of the game: “It’s important to take advantage of the time not played to recover and communicate. » Players aren’t the only ones involved, as Galthié puts it: “Between the first two blocks and the last two blocks we will have a ten minute break where everyone will return to the locker room. It will be like part time. There, it’s the coaches who are going to train, who have to say what it takes. It’s so important to be kind in these moments. »

A few minutes later, his protege was one day in the grounds of Sem Gallet City Stadium to live a unique experience, in front of a hundred people who came to observe this session like no other. In shorts, crampons and a whistle in his mouth, Galthié leads debates and votes for an hour of valuable advice. Eager to unite all strata of French rugby, Lotois (he grew up forty kilometers from Belvès) strove to invest in his mission. A moment clearly appreciated by local leaders and supporters alike, who then seek selfies or autographs, even if the infamous “half time” has been used to arrange for Fabien Galthié’s shot in the middle of the pitch, especially with a village’s rugby school in disarray.