France won their seventh Guinness Men’s Six Nations title, and a first since 2022. They improved on their second-place finish from 2024 and bettered their 15 points to 21 after four victories and one defeat.
France have turned a page. Their 2023 Rugby World Cup hangover is in the past and they are building foundations for Australia 2027.
It wasn’t a perfect showing from Fabien Galthie’s team, but the defeat to England provided valuable lessons, lessons they learned quickly with emphatic wins over Italy, Ireland, and Scotland.
Another lesson was that they can live without their talisman and captain Antoine Dupont.
Remember the blind panic the nation went into when he was injured in the RWC2023 group stages, and then rushed back for their quarter-final defeat to South Africa? This time the panic dissipated as Maxime Lucu showed his class at nine.
Losing to England at Allianz Stadium will sting for a while, and they will have to wait two years to show they’ve learned from it.
The lesson from defeat in Le Crunch, was that the 13 channel was France’s Achilles Heel, notably when Elliot Daly scored the winning try with outside-centre Pierre-Louis Barassi’s looking lost as he flew by.
Gaël Fickou has long been France’s defensive leader at 13, and it was no surprise that he came back for their match with Scotland when fit. Fickou is 30 and the Racing 92 man will be a key figure all the way to Australia 2027.
Now Europe has been conquered, they face a daunting three-test tour to New Zealand in July. However, with confirmation that the Top 14 finalists will miss the tour, Galthie will be hoping at least one of Toulouse or Bordeaux-Begles will miss the Paris finale. If not the bulk of his squad will be absent.