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France captain Manaé Feleu eyes World Cup glory
By Martyn Thomas
Manaé Feleu has come a long way, both figuratively and literally, in the past couple of years but if the France captain gets her way, then a place in the history books awaits.
No French player, male or female, has ever got their hands on a Rugby World Cup trophy with Les Bleues falling at the semi-final hurdle at eight of the nine editions of the women’s showpiece tournament.
That was their fate at the last Women’s Rugby World Cup, played in New Zealand in 2022, consoling themselves with a seventh bronze medal on the long flight home.
However, having beaten the Black Ferns in New Zealand for the first time last year and followed that up with another second-place finish in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations 2024, Feleu believes France are in good shape a year out from England 2025 as they bid to end their Rugby World Cup wait.
“I think we're well placed,” she tells RugbyPass. “We've still got a lot of work to do, we still have one year to go to polish our rugby and polish the team.
“So, the goal is to go and get that World Cup. I think all the girls on the team are ready to get to work this year to be able to give our best and show our best rugby during the World Cup next year.”
Feleu was part of the France team that suffered an agonising Six Nations defeat to England in front of 58,498 fans at Twickenham in April 2023.
At the time that was a world record attendance for a women’s rugby event. But having watched on as it was broken on successive days of the Olympic sevens tournament in Paris last month, Feleu is motivated by the thought of playing in front of an even bigger crowd at the Women’s RWC 2025 final.
“I'm just really excited,” she says. “I was at the Twickenham game, where there was 58,000 people and it was incredible.
“So, just knowing that maybe we might be playing in front of even more people is really exciting. And I can't wait to see more people being excited about women's rugby.”
Captaining France to Women’s Rugby World Cup glory would be a fitting next step on the remarkable journey that has taken Feleu, and her sister Teani, across the globe.
Although born in Mâcon in Burgundy, the Feleus grew up on the small Pacific Island of Wallis and Futuna, a French territory that has supplied the country with an impressive and growing number of international rugby players.
Both Manaé and Teani attended boarding school in New Zealand before relocating back to the French mainland to Grenoble to finish their rugby education.
In April, Teani appeared as a second-half replacement against Italy to join her big sister on the Stade Jean Bouin pitch and fulfil a life-long ambition. Seven days later, the pair started the 40-0 victory against Wales in the same forward pack.
“That was very special,” Manaé says. “Playing with your sister on the national team is something that's pretty rare, I reckon so it's just really special.
“We always had that dream of playing on the French team together, and that was a dream that came true during the Six Nations. So, it was a really big privilege.
“There's heaps of work that we put in to be able to get to that goal, so we were just so happy to be able to play at that level together.”
Feleu is happy to report that Teani was able to park any sibling rivalry when being captained by her sister.
“I think she knows that when we're on the pitch, she needs to respect that role,” she adds.
“I don't think I changed the way I captain the team when she's on the team or when she's on the pitch. I guess we just know that when we play rugby, it's rugby.
“And then when we get off the pitch, she can be… we can laugh together and stuff.”
With the second edition of WXV on the horizon, Feleu is approaching the first anniversary of her being named France captain.
She says she has “learned a lot about leadership and how to manage a group of girls” in that time and is grateful for the support of the senior members of the squad.
Although Feleu made her Test debut as a replacement against England in 2020, she had only become a regular in the team’s second row during the 2023 Six Nations and had amassed just nine caps – and four starts – when coaches Gaëlle Mignot and David Ortiz put their faith in her.
“We still have Gaëlle Hermet who was captain for a long time in the French team and she's one of the girls that supported me through that transition. We have a few big leaders that really helped me,” Feleu explains.
“I still have heaps to learn. But having those girls by my side is really helpful, and they're always there for me if I need and that's really, comforting to have that.
“It was a bit daunting because I had Gaëlle Hermet and other girls like Pauline Bourdon[-Sansus], who are big leaders in the team. And I thought they would have been better at the role than me.
“So, at the start, it was really hard to get my head around that. Around being the captain and knowing that the captain I knew when I came into the team was still in the team, but she wasn't captain anymore.
“The first thing I did is I went and talked to Gaëlle, to ask her questions about the captaincy because she was captain really young. Well, she got the role of captain really young, just like me, I guess.
“We talked it through and knowing that I had her support and the support of other leaders that had been here for longer than me was really comforting for me. And I was more comfortable in the role after that.”
France will hope their relaxed captain can lead them to unprecedented glory over the next year, and that long-awaited Women's Rugby World Cup crown.
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