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Sport Nation
Important SN update for Southland'They're not scared anymore': Former All Black's warning over hungry young French team
Sport Nation • July 2nd, 2025 2:00 pm
Photo: Photosport
Don't be hoodwinked by the marquee names absent from the France squad to face the All Blacks in Dunedin this weekend.
That's the warning being sounded from World Cup-winner Victor Vito, a player who knows a thing or seven about French rugby.
Moving on from international rugby after helping the All Blacks lift the William Webb Ellis in 2015, the Welingtonian spent seven years playing for La Rochelle in the Top 14 league, where he amassed 134 appearances, winning the 2017 Top 14 Player of the Year award along the way.
Fabien Galthie's side is without a host of its stars due to Top 14 playoffs commitments, while the coach has opted to rest the likes of No.8 Gregory Aldritt and fullback Thomas Ramos after a gruelling domestic campaign.
Injuries mean former World Rugby Player of the Year Antoine Dupont and his halves cohort Romain Ntamack were also left off the plane south.
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But according to Vito, the NZ rugby public would be foolish to write them off.
While the squad is replete with inexperience, many of them are products of the country's golden U20 generation, which has seen them win three of the past four World Championships at that age group.
Vito says the philosophy of the French and how they regard NZ rugby has changed dramatically over the past few years, with their recent record of dominance removing the men in black from the pedestal on which they were previously held.
"It's definitely changed over the last five or six years," Vito told Sport Nation's Scotty & Izzy.
"All the success that they've had in their U20s, it's filtered through into these guys that they have there now.
"They just aren't scared anymore of the All Blacks. They used to be… and they'd always build it up to be a massive game.
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"This new generation, they're coming in and they just don't care."
'Les Bleus' are currently on a three-match winning streak against the All Blacks, who last got the wood on them during the July series of 2018.
From France’s 42-man squad, 20 players are uncapped and only nine have 10 or more Tests to their name.
But 33-Test veteran Vito says that underdog mentality makes them a risky proposition for an All Blacks side that's still finding its own feet under second-year coach Scott Robertson.
"We think they're young and inexperienced looking to get a hiding, but they're coming to win, and that and I think that's a dangerous beast."
Listen to the full interview below:
