The double world champion, as captain in 1998 then as coach in 2018, confronted his rugby counterpart with his responsibilities.
Ten months after the cruel failure of the Blues of football at the World Cup in Qatar, the Kylian Mbappé gang only failing on penalties against Argentina, in the final, the XV of France in turn recorded a terrible disappointment during his World Cup. While they hoped to lift the Webb-Ellis trophy in front of the crowd at the Stade de France, on October 28, Fabien Galthié’s men left the competition in the quarter-finals, narrowly beaten by South Africa.
The disappointment lived up to the expectations placed on them by the French, which Didier Deschamps did not fail to emphasize to his alter ego of the XV of France. “ I said that to Fabien Galthié. I told him it was his fault and that of his players. They set the bar so high, very high in fact, that everyone expected them. Unfortunately, it didn’t come down to many things but it ended in the quarter-finals “, he confided in Salon VIP at the microphone of beIN Sports.
And the former midfielder speaks with knowledge. The failure on penalties against Argentina was indeed difficult to digest for the native of Bayonne. “If we lose 2-0 or 3-0, it’s not the same regrets,” he confided after the defeat against the Albiceleste, adding: “It’s really cruel. We put a lot of energy into it, we had a match point and to see victory slip away from us on penalties is terrible. This failure will be difficult to forget but it must help us for the future. » Words which had been interpreted as a reference to the Euro 2016 final lost in overtime against Portugal, two years before the coronation of the Blues in Qatar.
