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France retained their Six Nations title in thrilling fashion against England on Saturday. Defence may have been optional as they shipped over 90 points in their last two games, but this France team will be remembered for one thing: their attack. In fact, there is a very good case for this current French attacking being the greatest the Six Nations has ever seen.
France absolutely dominated the attacking stats in the 2026 Men’s Six Nations. On a basic level, they scored 30 tires for the second tournament in a row – no team has ever scored more. This alone suggests France’s attack is the tournament’s best ever, but if we dig deeper into the stats we see that the margin between Le Bleus and the rest was vast.
France topped the rankings for tries, points, offloads, carry metres, line breaks and metres per carry - all by huge margins. These numbers not only reveal the success of France’s attack but also show why it was so entertaining to watch; France’s tries came from far out, featuring spectacular ball skills and supreme athleticism.
A key factor in France’s incredible attack is their total mastery of the kicking game. France’s kicking stats were just as dominant as their ball in hand stats; they topped the rankings for both kick metres and metres per kick. They also had by far the most kicks that bounced, showing how good France’s kickers are at finding unmarked space in the backfield.
Most fascinating, though, is how France have added retained kicks as one of their most powerful weapons. In 2025, France retained just 17% of their kicks and five of the six teams retained between 20 and 28 kicks each. This season, France retained 26% of their kicks or 37 in total, a huge increase on 12 months ago. They were the only team to have an increase of this size.
It’s easy to get lost in the finer details of France’s attack, but the single biggest reason for their excellence is simply how ridiculously talented their players are. Wingers Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Theo Attissogbe finished the championship one and two for both tries scored and linebreaks whilst the top 4 players for try involvements were all French.
Almost every French player is worthy of praise for their sensational attacking skills, but three players in particular stand out for their majestic performances this Six Nations
Bielle-Biarrey has made history by breaking the record for most tries in a single Six Nations with 9, a record he himself set just 12 months ago. He has now scored in 10 consecutive Six Nations matches, also a tournament record. In his France career so far, he is averaging more than one try per 80, the next best Frenchman in history is Damien Penaud with 0.6.
He also tops the stats for line breaks and attacking catches. Fascinatingly, he has the highest percentage of kicks retained, too, with more than one in three of his kicks being retained. What makes that stat even more remarkable is that, for the vast majority of his retained kicks, he is the one retaining them.
It would be easy to put Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s greatness down to simply pace - a god given gift he was born with that others simply were not. However, this would be highly disrespectful to Bielle-Biarrey’s skillset. He played fly-half growing up and still exhibits a phenomenal level of game understanding. He holds his width with intelligence and makes runs in anticipation of his teammates’ actions. You do not break every try scoring record in the book at the age of 22 just by being fast!
Does this man even feel pressure? When kicking the tournament winning penalty against England, he lifted his arms in celebration before the ball even landed. When you have a goal kicking record as good as Ramos’, you can see why he is so confident; he has now finished the Six Nations as the top points scored for the fourth tournament in a row – a new record. He has the most successful goals in 2026 and the best goal kicking percentage success.
He is so much more than just a goal kicker, though. France use Ramos as a second fly-half and his touches per minute are nearly double that of any other fullback in the championship. He finished second overall for carries, metres made, offloads and line break assists. Even when he drops the ball, he makes it look like he did it on purpose!
Finally! The crowning of Matthieu Jalibert as the best attacking 10 in the Northern Hemisphere has been a long time coming. He was stuck behind Romiain Ntamack for many seasons and there were murmings of personality clashes with coach Fabien Galthie. Jalibert had been unfairly cast as a 10 with talent but lacking the temperament for big games. After his game changing performance against England, that myth is well and truly busted.
Jalibert’s attacking stats are quite simply on another planet to any other fly-half in the Six Nations. After 4 rounds, his combined line breaks and line break assists were averaging out to 4.2 per 80. Think about that for a second: one player directly involved in over four line breaks per game. For context, Wales made 4 line breaks as a whole team against Scotland and Ireland… combined!
Jalibert topped the Six Nations for line break assists, offloads and try assists. He beat 18 defenders, 9 of which were against England in the championship deciding match. He was also the key man behind France’s superb kicking game, topping the tournament stats for total kicks bounced and being second overall for percentage of kicks retained - behind Antoine Dupont.
There was so much discussion ahead of the Six Nations about whether or not Fabien Galthie would give Jalibert his chance this Six Nations, with many arguing he could not work effectively with the supernova that is Anotine Dupont. Not only did he work with the supernova, he outshone him. There is a reason his nickname in France is ‘maestro’ – Matthieu Jalibert makes rugby look like art.