EMILIEN GAILLETON, LOUIS BIELLE-BIARREY, PAUL BOUDEHENT: 3 NOVICES AND A FRENCH XV IN SCOTLAND 

 The staff of the XV of France revealed this Thursday the composition of the team which will attack Saturday in Scotland (4:15 p.m.) the preparation matches for the World Cup. Fabien Galthié voluntarily deprived himself of "premium" players and decided to establish Emilien Gailleton, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Paul Boudehent, three players who will know their first selection. Brice Dulin is captain. Fabien Galthié therefore did not play the game of cat and mouse with the press. It is with the "reserve" of the XV of France that he will start the first of four preparatory matches for the World Cup. No Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos or Grégory Alldritt: these players, whom the coach himself describes as "premium", are preserved for this test at Murrayfield, facing an XV of Thistle which will look like, him, more or less, to the one who will start the World Cup in a little over a month. In this team of uncertains, we find in the front line the European champion from La Rochelle Pierre Bourgarit, third in the hierarchy of tricolor hookers, associated with Toulonnais Jean-Baptiste Gros (21 selections) and Lyonnais Demba Bamba (25 selections). The second line will be made up of Montpellier's Bastien Chalureau (3 selections) and Racingman Cameron Woki (19 selections), absent from the last Tournament due to injury. In the third line, the Parisian Sekou Macalou and his 15 selections will almost act as a taulier alongside the neophyte Paul Boudehent and his teammate in La Rochelle Yoann Tanga, barely more experienced at the international level (2 selections). A THREE-QUARTERS LINE AT AVERAGE AGE OF 21 Since Galthié decided to send those who had the most to prove to the front at Murrayfield, one would have thought that the Rochelais Antoine Hastoy, until then third in the hierarchy of openers, would start this game. However, it is Bordeaux Matthieu Jalibert (23 selections) who will wear number 10 in Edinburgh, and will be associated with Lyonnais Baptiste Couilloud (11 selections) in the scrum.

Of the fifteen players who will start on Saturday, Lyonnais winger Ethan Dumortier (5 selections) is the only first choice of the last Tournament. His presence in the starting team gives, perhaps, an indication of Galthié's intentions to reinstall the Toulonnais Gabin Villière (12 selections), back from injury, in his standard team. His counterpart on the wing will be the juvenile Louis Bielle-Biarrey (20 years old) who, like his U20 friend Emilien Gailleton in the center, will experience his first cape on Saturday starting the meeting. Gailleton will be associated with the Bordelais Yoram Moefana (16 selections), not really sparkling during the last Tournament in his favorite position and who will also have to prove to compose his ticket for the World Cup. This very young line of three-quarters (21 years and 3 months of average age) will be supervised by the returning Brice Dulin (33 years old, 36 selections), who has not been capped since the last match of the Tournament of 6 Nations 2021… against Scotland and who will even be the captain of the Blues. The starting XV: Dulin (cap.) - Bielle-Biarrey, Gailleton, Moefana, Dumortier - (o) Jalibert, (m) Couilloud - Macalou, Tanga, Boudehent - Chalureau, Woki - Bamba, Bourgarit, Gros.

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