France skipper Alldritt seeks consistency in 'challenging' Ireland Test / Photo: Nicolas TUCAT - AFP
France skipper Alldritt seeks consistency in 'challenging' Ireland Test
Consistency is key for victory in the Six Nations, France captain Gregory Alldritt argued ahead of the "massive challenge" of taking on Ireland in Marseille on Friday.
Many pundits have dubbed the clash between arguably the tournament's two heavyweights as a title decider, but Alldritt refused to believe the hype.
"The beauty of this competition is that every weekend is a tough weekend," said the La Rochelle No 8 who has led his club to back-to-back Champions Cup titles.
"It will be a bit too early to say that (it is the decider).
"Of course, it's a really important game for the tournament. But I remember four years ago we didn't get a bonus point against England and we lost the Six Nations with that.
"That's the beauty of the Six Nations. You need to be consistent every weekend, so we just go step by step and the first one is a massive step for us... a massive challenge."
Alldritt said coach Fabien Galthie had gathered a "great squad".
"We're in the zone of what we've been doing for the last four years," he said.
"I feel the same pressure as before any Six Nations, any cap... But there's no negative pressure, we're confident of our gameplan, we'll just have to be very accurate and really front up tomorrow.
"We've trained well and we're ready for a big match. You need this pressure to have knots in your stomach the day of a game!"
- Giant Tuilagi 'ready' -
Perpignan teenager Posolo Tuilagi was a late call-up to the squad to replace fellow lock Romain Taofifenua on the bench, the latter ruled out with sickness.
The 19-year-old Samoa-born Tuilagi, whose father is former Samoa international and Perpignan player Henry Tuilagi, represented France at the under-20s World Cup last year.
Posolo Tuilagi is also the nephew of England centre Manu Tuilagi and former Samoa internationals Freddie, Alesana, Anitelea and Sanele Vavae Tuilagi.
France forwards coach William Servat was in no doubt that Tuilagi, a giant who weighs in at 150kg and stands 1.94m tall, would fit right in.
"Posolo took part in a training session last week," Servat said.
"He's ready. He's integrated pretty well."
Servat also insisted neither the backroom staff nor squad were harking back to the absence of talisman Antoine Dupont.
France's regular captain has opted to miss the Six Nations to turn his attentions to rugby sevens ahead of this summer's Paris Olympics.
Maxime Lucu instead starts at scrum-half, with Nolann le Garrec on the bench.
Lucu, Servat, said, had been "quite exceptional" while Le Garrec had underlined his potential to be a "great player".
B.Mclean--EWJ
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