The date of Wednesday 15th January, 2025, is important. It's the day when Galthié reveals the names of the 42 players who will begin preparing for the Guinness Men's Six Nations, which France opens at home to Wales on Friday 31st January.
This initial list of players will evolve, of course. After this weekend, a new-look group of 42 players will be called up, which will then be reduced to 28 the following Wednesday (allowing the 14 players not selected to return to club duites). This number will then be cut down to 23 two days before the match (with five players returning to their club), with the starting XV to face Warren Gatland's Wales then being revealed.
For Galthié, the former scrum-half with 64 caps to his name, this will be his sixth Championship in charge of France. And, as always, he will look to select the best players to win each match - something at which he has been successful 80% of the time since taking over from Jacques Brunel in the aftermath of a disappointing 2019 Rugby World Cup.
This year's squad list could be particularly complicated to refine in light of a reshuffling of the cards during November's successful Autumn Nations Series, particularly from the point of view of those once comfortably considered undroppable, but also depending on the numerous injuries that have occurred in recent weeks in the Top 14 and the Champions Cup.
Formulating a winning team
Despite everything, Galthié's method for selecting his squad is always the same and begins every Monday morning following a weekend of club action. A big video meeting of the entire staff - 32 people in total, including the rugby coaches, the performance team, the medical and analysis departments - is organised on Zoom between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m.
Prior to the meeting, the rugby coaches will have sent their preferred selection of players, reveals Galthié to the Entre les Potos podcast. "Each coach will tell us about his team: his 15, his 23, his 28, his 42. In general, the team is 23 forwards and 19 bacls."
Galthié specifies that the 23 forwards are divided into nine front rows, six second row, with the rest being back rows. As for the 19 backs, the staff usually includes three half-back partnerships, then look for a good balance between centres, wingers and outside backs, knowing that some backs can play fly-half, nines can help out at fly-half, and wingers or centres can interchange their roles as needed.
Galthié continues: "Then, everyone tells their story. And at the end, I summarise the 15, the 23, the 28 and the 42. There are always lively debates. We accept - and above all I hope for - criticism, debate. I really want the challenge. At the end, I put together a team. Then, I ask each of us to comment on my selection."
60 players monitored continuously
The 42 names do not come out of a hat, stresses Galthié. If a hundred players are regularly followed by the Les Bleus, 60 are observed closely and approached individually.
"We started with a ranking of 60, four teams. That means that there are 60 players that we have already called to tell them 'we're following you'", continues Galthié. Each person is asked the same questions to assess their level of commitment to the project: "'During the tournament, even if you are not selected at the beginning, will you come back to us if we call you?' We want them to agree with the method. They know it, it is the sixth tournament [under Galthié]. We need to hear 'yes, yes, yes'. Plus, it's the holiday period - two weeks: 'Will you be too far away during the holidays? If you go too far, we won't be able to call you. But up to a 2.5 hour flight from Paris, it's still possible'."
A moveable feast
"Once we have done the ranking, we call all the players, every Monday or Tuesday," says Galthié. "The medical team is in contact with the club medical team. The performance [department] is in contact with the club performance. We know all the data produced on the 60 players we are following. We know their physical and physiological state and the mental preparation unit works with them.
The staff seeks to constantly evolve this ranking of 60 players. During the Autumn Nations Series, a player of the standing of Grégory Alldritt was out of the 23 for the match against Argentina last November; Charles Ollivon had left to play for his club instead of facing Japan; and Gaël Fickou was a substitute against Japan (for the first time in the Galthié era).
"Even if you're still a little far away in the rankings, when you're a professional rugby player and you have the ambition to be the best player possible, it's still good to be in the French team's rankings."
Following this methodology, the staff maintains a certain consistency in its choices, allowing Galthié to claim honestly at each team announcement: "This is our best team at the moment".
All this being said, Galthié admits to relying on a core group of six to eight players whom he calls regularly for consultation on matters such as the daily schedule, strategy, tactics, and the players' psychological and physical state. Thus, the bond remains strong between the players and the staff, meaning that the eight weeks spent together during the Championship go as smoothly as possible.
