Emmanuel Meafou one of four France squad members in Toulouse team
Toulouse have selected four members of France's 34-player squad in their team to play Castres on Saturday in the Top 14, including second row duo Thibaud Flament and Emmanuel Meafou.
Fabien Galthie named his 34-player squad on Thursday that will assemble next week in preparation for their trip to Wales in round four of the Guinness Six Nations.
Both Flament and Meafou will be part of the squad after missing the first three rounds of the Championship with a foot and knee injury, respectively.
They were not part of the 19-player squad that was retained by France this week during the fallow week though, so they will feature against Castres at the Stade Ernest-Wallon alongside fellow squad members winger Matthis Lebel and centre Pierre-Louis Barassi.
Of the four France squad members in the Toulouse team, Flament is the only one who will start on the bench, as he is returning from a long spell out.
The 145kg Meafou is edging towards his France debut after qualifying at the end of 2023 and, alongside Flament, will help resolve a mini-crisis in the second row for Les Bleus.
Fortunately for Galthie, he has plenty of options to choose from in the lock department despite injuries and suspensions.
This has led to 19-year-old Posolo Tuilagi breaking into the France squad, which means the rugby world is edging closer towards a Meafou - Tuilagi second row partnership, which will be just shy of 300kg.
France Squad
Forwards
ABADIE Esteban (RC Toulon)
ALDEGHERI Dorian (Stade Toulousain)
ALLDRITT Grégory (capitaine) (Stade Rochelais)
ATONIO Uini (Stade Rochelais)
BAILLE Cyril (Stade Toulousain)
BOUDEHENT Paul (Stade Rochelais)
COLOMBE Georges-Henri (Stade Rochelais)
CROS François (Stade Toulousain)
FLAMENT Thibaud (Stade Toulousain)
LAMOTHE Maxime (Union Bordeaux Bègles)
MARCHAND Julien (Stade Toulousain)
MAUVAKA Peato (Stade Toulousain)
MEAFOU Emmanuel (Stade Toulousain)
OLLIVON Charles (RC Toulon)
PRISO Dany (RC Toulon)
ROUMAT Alexandre (Stade Toulousain)
TAOFIFENUA Romain (Lyon OU Rugby)
TAOFIFENUA Sébastien (Lyon OU Rugby)
TUILAGI Posolo (USA Perpignan)
WOKI Cameron (Racing 92)
Backs
BARASSI Pierre-Louis (Stade Toulousain)
BARRÉ Léo (Stade Français)
BIELLE-BIARREY Louis (Union Bordeaux Bègles)
DEPOORTERE Nicolas (Union Bordeaux Bègles)
FICKOU Gaël (Racing 92)
GAILLETON Emilien (Section Paloise)
GIBERT Antoine (Racing 92)
HASTOY Antoine (Stade Rochelais)
LE GARREC Nolann (Racing 92)
LEBEL Matthis (Stade Toulousain)
LUCU Maxime (Union Bordeaux Bègles)
MOEFANA Yoram (Union Bordeaux Bègles)
PENAUD Damian (Union Bordeaux Bègles)
RAMOS Thomas (Stade Toulousain)
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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