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Amid all the furore surrounding the headline omissions of Gaël Fickou, Damian Penaud and Grégory Alldritt, the identity, quality and intrigue of the eight uncapped players named in France’s initial 42-man squad for the 6 Nations has slightly snuck under the radar. While there was shock in reaction to the omissions, there can be few arguments around the quality of the untested faces included by Fabien Galthié. Here is your guide to the players who could get their first opportunity at test level with Les Bleus this Spring.
Tom Staniforth (Second Row, Castres, 31 years old)
The big Australian with the amazing mullet has been with Castres since November 2020 and qualifies on residency grounds. He would surely have gone on the summer tour to New Zealand were it not for missing the entirety of the 2024-25 season with a knee injury. He has not quite hit his absolute best since that injury, which makes the timing of his call up seem strange, but not unmerited. At his best, he’s one of the leading second rows in the Top 14. A massive lump with a phenomenal work-rate, he’s regularly near the top of the charts for tackles, carries and rucks hit.
Temo Matiu (Back Row, UBB, 24)
An athletic back rower with pace and power, Matiu found himself on the periphery for UBB in his first season after joining from Biarritz in 2024. He seemed to suffer from not being given a clear role. However, in the last couple of months he has been given the starting no.8 jersey (starting all four Champions Cup games there) and has thrived with the responsibility of being the primary ball carrier in a very mobile pack. A real possibility of starting in the role vacated by Alldritt.
Ugo Seunes (Fly Half, Racing 92, 25)
This time two years ago, Ugo Seunes was left without a club after Nationale side Blagnac went into administration in January 2024. He didn’t play another game that season. From there, he was picked up by Aurillac, Pro D2’s great un-earther of hidden talent, and was a revelation in Pro D2 last season, attracting a cult following despite his side finishing 2nd bottom of the league and needing a play-off victory to avoid relegation to the third tier.
Seunes’ rise from France’s third tier to a call up to train with Les Bleus in November is even more remarkable when you look at him; Racing 92’s official website has his weight as 75kg. To be that size in top-level professional rugby, you have to have something about you, and Seunes is an incredibly inventive player, with a sublime kicking game.
Fabien Brau-Boirie (Centre, Pau, 20)
Astonishingly, Pau’s young centre only turned 20 in December and he already has nearly 30 first-team appearances for the Les Verts et Blancs. In those appearances, he has been completely unphased by coming up against some of the league’s biggest hitters, and at times has looked like the only one among his team mates that is capable of stopping the likes of Manu Tuilagi, Josua Tuisova and Rohan Janse van Rensburg. It would be understandable if he had a similar physique to these bruisers but he doesn’t, his body shape is not atypical for a 20 year old rugby player.
He has that wriggly knack of consistently getting a couple of yards over the gainline, whether close to the ruck or in the wider channels and has looked ready-made for international rugby for the best part of a year - he was called up to last year’s 6 Nations squad too.
Noah Néné (Centre, Stade Français, 21)
Another man called up to last year’s 6 Nations squad. Néné was playing at Dax in Pro D2 last season, and had to be patient for regular opportunities at Stade Français when he returned from his loan spell in the South West. He has now cemented his place as Stade’s first choice centre, with six tries in ten Top 14 appearances this season.
Like Brau-Boirie, he has gone toe-to-toe with the league’s heavyweight centres; his match up against Tuisova in the Paris derby was a particularly seismic contest. Unlike Brau-Boirie, Néné has the more obviously powerful physique, and he looked far too powerful and quick in Pro D2 last season. He has started to look too powerful for most in the Top 14 this season too.
Grégoire Arfeuil (Wing, Pau, 21)
There have been some meteoric rises for some of the players in this France squad, but arguably none more than Arfeuil. Before this season, he had never played a Top 14 game. The thrilling counter-attacking try he set up for Brau-Boirie against Lyon was only his second Top 14 start. He might not have played too much this season either, were it not for the injury to his team mate Attissogbe but he now has 10 tries in 13 games this season, including an outstanding brace against Northampton in the Champions Cup. Those tries showed not just his pace, but some outstanding skill and some exceptional timing on his kick chase, something Pau have used as an attacking weapon to great effect.
In an interview with The Rosbifs Rugby Podcast this week, his scrum-half Dan Robson talked of how eager he is to throw himself into everything and how he is also in a world of his own; there is more than a hint of Damien Penaud about him. That is obviously a good thing, but can also be mindbogglingly frustrating, as shown by his willingness to run the ball out from behind his own try line in the final minute against Northampton - a decision that ultimately cost his side a losing bonus point and a place in the knockouts.
Gaël Dréan (Wing, Toulon, 25)
Dréan won the Révélation award at France’s annual Nuit du Rugby awards in September, edging out Seunes and Brau-Boirie. There is no official criteria for the award, but it is given to a young player who has had a breakthrough year. Dréan would have toured and probably been capped in New Zealand last summer, were it not for an injury that curtailed his season. He is an outstanding finisher, with 24 tries in 32 starts since the beginning of last season.
Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang (Wing, Pau, 25)
When the South London-born winger left Old Elthamians RFC in 2019, deciding to use his French parentage to make his way over the channel, surely even he couldn’t have predicted that within six years he would have won an Olympic Gold medal for the host nation and earned a call up to the French XV side. It is another remarkable story among this squad’s uncapped contingent.
Like many players who make the transition from 7s, he has had to adapt to the 15-man game, but after some early struggles, he has developed into a top-quality all round player and is worthy of his place. He may not have the prolific strike-rate of some of the other wing options (only nine tries in 30 matches for Pau), but he is a threat under the high-ball and Pau have learnt how to use his searing pace in set plays and to make space for others.
He is also very handy at the guitar and piano (he plays in a band with Arfeuil, Émilien Gailleton and a few other Pau players), is currently doing a full DIY renovation of his home alongside some modelling, and has a mean golf handicap. He is - clearly - adept at most things.