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Antoine Frisch among eight France debutants

Antoine Frisch will make his France debut this weekend, ending any hopes Ireland had of selecting him. (Photo By Eóin Noonan/ Getty Images)

For his 50th Test in charge of France this Saturday, Fabien Galthié has selected an experimental matchday 23 to take on Argentina in Mendoza.

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Galthié, who has an impressive 78% winning record, hands debuts to seven starters with two more players in line to make their senior international bow if they are called upon from the bench.

Antoine Frisch is among those set to win their first caps with the Toulon-bound centre, who has spent the last two years with Munster, named in a midfield with Émilien Gailleton.

French-born Frisch was once coveted by Andy Farrell, as he qualifies for Ireland through an Irish grandmother and toured with Emerging Ireland in 2022.

Gailleton’s Pau team-mate, Théo Attissogbe and fellow wing Lester Etien are the other newcomers to a raw backline, which contains Baptiste Serin as captain and scrum-half.

The Toulon No.9 will lead Les Bleus for the second time in his 45th cap, having only previously worn the armband against Italy in the 2020 Autumn Nations Cup.

Serin, who turned 30 last month, is accompanied at half-back by Antoine Hastoy.

Fixture
Internationals
Argentina
13 - 28
Full-time
France
All Stats and Data

In the pack, Jonathan Joseph makes his long-awaited debut at number eight.

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The 23-year-old Racing 92 player has been bedevilled by injuries since starring for France in their World Rugby U20 Championship winning campaign in 2018.

Joseph lines up in an all-new back row with fellow uncapped players Lenni Nouchi and Oscar Jegou.

Nouchi, who led France to the World Rugby U20 Championship title last year, was due to start on the bench but has taken his place on the blindside following the late withdrawal of Judicaël Cancoriet.

The third debutant to come from Pau is lock Hugo Auradou, who packs down in the engine room with Baptiste Pesenti.

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Props Jean-Baptiste Gros and Georges-Henri Colombe and hooker Gaëtan Barlot make up the front row.

Lyon forward Mickaël Guillard is the only uncapped player on an otherwise experienced bench.

The France team to play Argentina:

15 Léo Barré; 14 Théo Attissogbe, 13 Émilien Gailleton, 12 Antoine Frisch, 11 Lester Etien; 10 Antoine Hastoy, 9 Baptiste Serin; 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 2 Gaëtan Barlot, 3 Georges-Henri Colombe, 4 Hugo Auradou, 5 Baptiste Pesenti, 6 Lenni Nouchi, 7 Oscar Jegou, 8 Jordan Joseph.

Replacements: 16 Teddy Baubigny, 17 Sébastien Taofifenua, 18 Demba Bamba, 19 Posolo Tuilagi, 20 Mickaël Guillard, 21 Ibrahim Diallo, 22 Baptiste Couilloud, 23 Melvyn Jaminet.

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J
JS 3 hours ago
Four All Blacks whose international careers are at a crossroads

Reiko distributes when he needs to. Have there been times he could have passed to return a better result? Sure definitely!! but he’s needing to process a lot of milli-second data evolving in front of him with his primary purpose being “how do I contribute toward stressing this approaching defensive line” NOT simply passing to a winger for the sake of passing to a winger…..thats dumb! We dont want him passing to a winger if that winger gets bundled into touch or goes to ground and because now the ruck is 20-30 metres away further down the field from his support cleaners the risk of t/o is increased.


Core to a 13’s mindset in the ‘current’ game of every defender is a jackler, rush defences and playing a ‘pace’ game of width requiring fast ruck ball to try and stress a defensive line to find weaknesses to attack (the AB’s style) …..is to always be assessing if passing to your winger is going to see him scoot down the touchline for a try untouched OR (aware of the defensive strength of your opponents) do you make the decision instead to be the point of attack yourself - try to use your strength to step or break through BUT if tackled, back your own strength and skill to goto ground and recycle quickly and in doing so create a blind that immediately spreads the defenders from sideline to sideline giving your halves 2 options to ‘attack’ or box kick into behind Reiko’s ruck v just the 1 option if he passes to his wingers ALL the time.


I would suggest the above is why we keep seeing Reiko starting at 13 coming up 40+ tests….. because of the options Reiko attacking the pictures he sees provides for his halves


Watch the interplay between him and Fainganuku in Leicesters try v Ireland in the 1/4 final.

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