Latest news with #RabahSlimani
CNA
03-07-2025
- Sport
- CNA
France coach Galthie names eight uncapped players to face New Zealand
France coach Fabien Galthie on Thursday named eight debutants, including five starters, in a depleted squad for their opening match of a three-test tour of New Zealand in Dunedin. Tom Spring is set to make his debut on the right wing in the clash on Saturday while Joris Segonds will earn his first cap at flyhalf. Alexandre Fischer will earn his first cap in the third row, Tyler Duguid in the second row and Giorgi Beria as prop. Props Paul Mallez and Regis Montagne, along with versatile forward Jacobus van Tonder, who can play in the second or third row, will hope to debut off the bench. Captain Gael Fickou, who is the most-capped player in the squad (94 caps), will lead the side from the centre while veteran prop Rabah Slimani will return to international rugby for the first time since October 2019. Pierre-Louis Barassi, Pierre Bochaton, Joshua Brennan, Nicolas Depoortere and Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, who all played in the Top 14 final last Saturday, are out of the squad and will be available for the second and third tests. France team: 15–Theo Attissogbe, 14–Tom Spring, 13–Emilien Gailleton, 12–Gael Fickou (capt), 11–Gabin Villiere, 10–Joris Segonds, 9–Nolann Le Garrec, 8–Mickael Guillard, 7–Killian Tixeront, 6–Alexandre Fischer, 5–Tyler Duguid, 4–Hugo Auradou, 3–Rabah Slimani, 2–Gaetan Barlot, 1–Giorgi Beria. Replacements: 16–Pierre Bourgarit, 17–Paul Mallez, 18–Regis Montagne, 19–Romain Taofifenua, 20–Cameron Woki, 21–Jacobus van Tonder, 22–Baptiste Jauneau, 23–Antoine Hastoy.
The 42
24-06-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Fickou to captain youthful France squad for tour of New Zealand
GAEL FICKOU WILL captain an inexperienced France squad for their tour of New Zealand this summer, the French rugby federation announced on Tuesday. The reigning Six Nations champions will be missing many senior players for the tour, such as Gregory Alldritt. Coach Fabien Galthie has called up 37 players for the three matches against New Zealand on 5, 12 and 19 July. However, the list will likely grow by up to five additional players following Saturday's Top 14 final between Toulouse and Bordeaux-Begles. Fickou skippered the side for the friendly victory over England last weekend, and, with 94 caps, the Racing 92 centre is the most experienced active French player. Advertisement For the tour of New Zealand, where France have not beaten the All Blacks since 2009, the 31-year-old will be tasked with bringing experience to a squad featuring 28 players with fewer than 10 caps. Fickou will be joined by other international veterans including prop Rabah Slimani and second row Romain Taofifenua. But a number of others are absent such as forwards Alldritt, Paul Boudehent and Jean-Baptiste Gros — either through injury or the decision to rest them. The squad could be bolstered with the addition of the likes of Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos, Thibaud Flament, Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey from the two Top 14 finalists. Some of these players could fly to the southern hemisphere after the final if they have not already used up the quota of 2,000 minutes played over the whole season set by the national team. However, Galthie has been able to count on the players from defeated semi-finalists Bayonne and Toulon, notably Bayonne fly-half Joris Segonds, Toulon flanker Esteban Abadie and winger Gabin Villiere. France squad for New Zealand tour Forwards (21) Esteban Abadie (Toulon) Hugo Auradou (Pau) Demba Bamba (Racing 92) Gaetan Barlot (Castres) Giorgi Beria (Perpignan) Pierre Bourgarit (La Rochelle) Georges-Henri Colombe (La Rochelle) Tyler Duguid (Montpellier) Baptiste Erdocio (Montpellier) Alexandre Fischer (Clermont) Mickael Guillard (Lyon) Matthias Halagahu (Toulon) Paul Mallez (Provence) Guillaume Marchand (Lyon) Regis Montagne (Clermont) Rabah Slimani (Leinster) Romain Taofifenua (Racing 92) Killian Tixeront (Clermont) Jacobus Van Tonder (Perpignan) Theo William (Lyon) Cameron Woki (Racing 92) Backs (16) Theo Attissogbe (Pau) Leo Barre (Stade Francais) Leo Berdeu (Lyon) Leon Darricarrere (Clermont) Thibault Daubagna (Pau) Alivereti Duguivalu (Perpignan) Gael Fickou (Racing 92) Emilien Gailleton (Pau) Antoine Hastoy (La Rochelle) Baptiste Jauneau (Clermont) Nolann Le Garrec (Racing 92) Theo Millet (Lyon) Joris Segonds (Bayonne) Tom Spring (Bayonne) Cheikh Tiberghien (Bayonne) Gabin Villiere (Toulon) – © AFP 2025
France 24
24-06-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Fickou to captain youthful France squad for tour of New Zealand
The reigning Six Nations champions will be missing many senior players for the tour, such as Gregory Alldritt. Coach Fabien Galthie has called up 37 players for the three matches against New Zealand on July 5, 12 and 19. However, the list will likely grow by up to five additional players following Saturday's Top 14 final between Toulouse and Bordeaux-Begles. Fickou skippered the side for the friendly victory over England last weekend, and, with 94 caps, the Racing 92 centre is the most experienced active French player. For the tour of New Zealand, where France have not beaten the All Blacks since 2009, the 31-year-old will be tasked with bringing experience to a squad featuring 28 players with fewer than 10 caps. Fickou will be joined by other international veterans including prop Rabah Slimani and second row Romain Taofifenua. But a number of others are absent such as forwards Alldritt, Paul Boudehent and Jean-Baptiste Gros -- either through injury or the decision to rest them. The squad could be bolstered with the addition of the likes of Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos, Thibaud Flament, Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey from the two Top 14 finalists. Some of these players could fly to the southern hemisphere after the final if they have not already used up the quota of 2,000 minutes played over the whole season set by the national team. However, Galthie has been able to count on the players from defeated semi-finalists Bayonne and Toulon, notably Bayonne fly-half Joris Segonds, Toulon flanker Esteban Abadie and winger Gabin Villiere. France squad for New Zealand tour Forwards (21): Esteban Abadie (Toulon) Hugo Auradou (Pau), Demba Bamba (Racing 92), Gaetan Barlot (Castres), Giorgi Beria (Perpignan), Pierre Bourgarit (La Rochelle), Georges-Henri Colombe (La Rochelle), Tyler Duguid (Montpellier), Baptiste Erdocio (Montpellier), Alexandre Fischer (Clermont), Mickael Guillard (Lyon), Matthias Halagahu (Toulon), Paul Mallez (Provence), Guillaume Marchand (Lyon), Regis Montagne (Clermont), Rabah Slimani (Leinster), Romain Taofifenua (Racing 92), Killian Tixeront (Clermont), Jacobus Van Tonder (Perpignan), Theo William (Lyon), Cameron Woki (Racing 92) Backs (16): Theo Attissogbe (Pau), Leo Barre (Stade Francais), Leo Berdeu (Lyon), Leon Darricarrere (Clermont), Thibault Daubagna (Pau), Alivereti Duguivalu (Perpignan), Gael Fickou (Racing 92), Emilien Gailleton (Pau), Antoine Hastoy (La Rochelle), Baptiste Jauneau (Clermont), Nolann Le Garrec (Racing 92), Theo Millet (Lyon), Joris Segonds (Bayonne), Tom Spring (Bayonne), Cheikh Tiberghien (Bayonne), Gabin Villiere (Toulon)
RTÉ News
11-06-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Jake White: Final against Leinster is 'D-Day' for the Bulls
Jake White has known since very early this season that the road to a first BKT United Rugby Championship title for the Bulls would go through Dublin. Beaten finalists in 2022 and 2024, the Bulls have been the most consistent off the four South African franchises in these first four seasons of the new URC, but they've failed to get over the finish line. While suffering disappointment in losing at home to Glasgow in last year's decider, five wins from six to start this campaign gave a strong indication that the Pretoria side would be in the shake-up once again when the URC got down to the final weeks of the season. The head coach also suspected as much, and has had his players preparing to for this final Dublin trip for quite some time. "My message for the last four or five months was, 'if you think you're good enough to beat Leinster away, then you've got to win all these games to get to the final', which we've now done," White said, speaking from the Bulls' training base at St Mary's RFC. "The question I've said to them this week is, 'you've said you're going to beat Leinster away, now let's see how good we are'. "That's been coming for four months, because it was inevitable that they were going to get first place because no one was going to catch them. "It's now D-day for us, to do what we said we were going to do." While Leinster's home advantage makes them favourites to claim their first URC title, and first trophy since 2021, there will be no fear in the Bulls camp about what they will face. Their win against Munster at Thomond Park in April saw them become the first of the South African sides to win an away game against all four provinces, and they also had a clean sweep of wins against Irish sides in the 2024/25 regular season. Additionally, three years ago, White's side went to the RDS and pulled off a shock semi-final win against Leinster, before beating them in the semis at Loftus Versfeld 12 months ago. The former Springbok coach isn't willing to reveal what the secret sauce is from those previous semi-final wins against this week's opponents though. "I suppose there are [recurring themes], but I'm not going to share them with you on media," he added, with a grin. It doesn't take a genius to work out that they will go after the scrum, an areas they have had dominance in across the last couple of seasons, and notably in their last two meetings with Leinster. "It has been an element we have tried to improve on, and there is no doubt our scrum has made significant strides in the last couple of seasons. That's through personnel as well, which you can understand. "I mean, why would a guy like Rabah Slimani be signed by Leinster? There is only one reason, because they see that as an area where they want make sure they can improve. "A guy like Rabah Slimani comes along and there's something in the middle of the scrum, lineout that they needed. "I suppose every club and every director of rugby would like to be in that situation," added White, ahead of this Saturday's final at Croke Park, for which more than 30,000 tickets had been sold by Tuesday morning. The unusual quirk of this weekend's final is that both sides are looking to become champions for the first time, despite having the two best records of wins to losses over the last four seasons, with Leinster having won 59 games in the URC era, and Bulls next best on 54. But White, who lost powerful number 8 Cameron Hanekom to injury in Saturday's semi-final win against the Sharks, knows the regular season counts for nothing in the summer. "That's the nature of this competition. You've got to get it right. One of the messages I got to the players was: one of the things about this competition is that you need to play your best rugby in the last three weeks, and we haven't managed to do that in the four years. "We have managed to play really well over a period of time but we haven't managed to back up three performances in a row. That's the challenge for all these teams. "You got to have your best guys out, they got to be playing their best and you've got to prepare them the best they can be for those last three Saturdays." It's been an emotional month for those in Bulls and the wider South African rugby community following the death of wing Cornal Hendricks (above) last month. The former Bulls and Springboks winger died of a suspected heart attack, with Saturday's final falling on his one month anniversary. As a mark of respect, the Bulls retired his old number 14 jersey for the remainder of the season, and he says that number has been popping up a lot in his mind in recent weeks. "He died on the 14th of May, and Saturday we play on the 14th of June. It's quite an ominous number. "Funny enough, I was doing a bit of homework and I read that Bloody Sunday, 14 people died at Croke Park. It's quite amazing that the number 14 comes up. "There is a lot of nice memories of Cornal that we will use [for motivation] and the number 14. Hopefully it will be a fantastic day on the 14th off June for us as a club as well. "There is a lot of relevance, the number 14 not being used this weekend. Sometimes you need that. You guys are from Ireland and look what Munster did in the time that they lost their coach [Anthony Foley] and how quickly that turned the way for Munster that year.
Irish Examiner
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Duncan Casey: Leinster 'victims of their own success'? Give me a break
When Northampton blindside Josh Kemeny was sin-binned for clattering Rabah Slimani into the jaw in the 67th minute on Saturday, I began writing the opening segment of this column in my head. 'Stupidity. Stupidity is what cost Northampton a spot in this year's Champions Cup final.' I was sure they had blown it. Leinster were in the ascendancy, had all the momentum and were now a man up with 12 minutes to go. This feeling was compounded when James Lowe dotted down in the corner two minutes later and even more so when, in an act of inexplicable silliness shortly thereafter, Juarno Augustus tackled Tommy O'Brien late on the wing to gift Leinster another penalty deep in Northampton territory. I rewrote the start of the column: 'Stupidity from Northampton's back row is what cost them a spot in this year's Champions Cup final.' Despite being gifted multiple opportunities to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in a match that had seen them shell-shocked, outplayed and routinely sliced open in defence, Leinster simply could not get the job done. Every time they found the correct answer to the question Saints threw at them, they followed it up by getting the next one wrong. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Subscribe to access all of the Irish Examiner. Annual €120€60 Best value Monthly €10€4 / month Unlimited access. Subscriber content. Daily ePaper. Additional benefits.
