Both Scott Robertson and Fabien Galthié have named their squads for the upcoming series in New Zealand starting this weekend, with some fans and pundits from New Zealand raising their eyebrows at the French squad that is set to tour New Zealand for three weeks.
Multiple former All Blacks have reacted to the French squad naming, criticising the quality of the squad.
Former All Black halfback Justin Marshall believes it’s “disrespectful” to bring such an inexperienced squad to New Zealand.
“To be honest, I’m really disappointed, look the way the side that the French have bought is clearly underpowered, the average age of 25 the average number of caps is 9.3,” Marshall told The Breakdown on Sky Sports.
“This is a side that has a very little amount of experience and then at the end of the day there’s 49% of the players have got no caps at all. So it’s a development team with a few senior players involved.
“In my mind, it’s complete BS the way that they’re treating this tour, the way that the French always seem to have come up with excuses to not bring their top players, I feel they disrespect the international window.”
Despite the disappointment, Marshall still believes the series is going to be competitive.
“I’m not going to say that it’s not going to be a contest out there, but our fans deserve to see their best players playing in our country against our All Blacks because we do that in November to them, we send our very best players for filling their stadiums and giving the fans the best experience they can get by seeing the best players in the world.
“They are not doing that and if they keep doing this, which is quite regular for them, just don’t invite them. We’ll play someone else, it’s still going to be a good series, and they’ll be competitive, and they’ve got depth.
“But the reality is, they’ve left 70% of their best players in France, and I just don’t feel that that is within the decency and the respect of the game,” Marshall said.
Former All Black and current Sky Sports commentator Jeff Wilson agrees with Marshall and thinks it’s not going to help France in the long run.
“I agree with you 100% but I have to admit, I have full respect for French rugby, I have no issues with the fact these guys are playing in a world-class competition, but this is still not their best side,” Wilson said on The Breakdown.
“We know their best players aren’t here, they know their best players aren’t here, they are absolutely going to go out there and compete, and prepare the best they can, but when push comes to shove, experience goes a long, long way, and you’re playing the All Blacks in New Zealand.
“The part I’m disappointed about is that if they genuinely want to win a World Cup, at some point, you want to give yourself the best opportunity to do that, you have to take on the top teams away from home, because in two years time a World Cup is being played in Australia, and that’s familiar territory to us.”
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Wilson uses Ireland’s tour of New Zealand in 2022 as an example, which gave Ireland belief ahead of the World Cup in 2023.
“Ireland came down here, and they beat the All Blacks for the first time in New Zealand, and it gave them a better chance of winning a Rugby World Cup.
“Now they pushed us right to the very limit, France has denied themselves the opportunity in a three-Test series to give guys the chance to understand what it takes to be successful in the southern hemisphere.”
100-Test former All Black Mils Muliaina strongly agrees with both Wilson and Marshall, saying that it’s now up to the All Blacks to perform and win the Test series 3-0.
“I’m with you, I just think it’s ridiculous that they’re able to bring this team with an average of nine caps, I mean it is disrespectful as well,” Muliaina said.
“We’ve spoken about the All Blacks, and now we’ve actually really got to own things and I hope that they actually beat them 3-0.”
