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Cameron Woki walkout fuels speculation around French unrest
By Ian Cameron
An apparent decision by France second row Cameron Woki to opt out of traveling to Cardiff with the national team as the 24th man - choosing instead to return to his club Racing 92 - has cast fresh doubt on the tenure of head coach Fabien Galthie.
This decision comes after Woki was excluded from the 23-man matchday squad following a series of performances that failed to meet expectations. Despite coming off the bench against Ireland and starting in France’s last two Tests, Woki has struggled to make a significant impact.
Galthie then announced a new second-row pairing of Emmanuel Meafou and Thibaud Flament to start, with Romain Taofifenua named on the bench, with Woki set to travel as the 24th man.
The revelation of Woki's refusal to serve as a backup was brought to light by Bernard Jackman during RTE's coverage of the Wales-France match, highlighting a potential rift within Galthie's squad. The former Dragons head coach has good contacts in France from his time in charge of Grenoble.
This apparent act of defiance by Woki points to deeper issues of unrest and dissatisfaction within the French setup, which has been underwhelming in their Six Nations campaign thus far.
While their win over Wales this afternoon will help, the incident will place Fabien Galthie under more pressure, with the French press and rugby public setting high expectations for the team.
Galthie - who has been hailed for revitalizing French rugby and leading them to notable successes in recent years - now faces scrutiny over his squad management and tactical decisions in the absence of superstar halfback Antoine Dupont, who is away playing sevens.
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Warren, if you think you should stay on coaching Wales, you are beyond deluded. If you love Wales & Welsh rugby as much as you say you do (& I'm sure you probably do) you should resign immediately so this once proud & passionate rugby nation can rebuild without you. How many of your players will make the British & Irish Lions squad.?
It's time to walk the plank.!
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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