FABIEN GALTHIÉ
FRANCE DON’T have Marmite but if they did they could call it Galthié. The new coach of France has that effect on people: you either love him or hate him.
Those in the former camp tend to be equals, erstwhile team-mates of talent, who describe a driven but likeable man. Galthié made his International debut in 1991 and Denis Charvet, a France centre from 1986-91, says: “He lives, eats and sleeps thinking about rugby. He has an attention to detail, and an unusual demand of himself and of others.”
Another ex-international colleague, Jean-Luc Sadourny, who was a team-mate of Galthié’s at Colomiers, recalls a young man “open and cheerful” who when he returns to his roots to see old friends “still has the rugby spirit and knows how to party”. Sadourny adds that Galthié has a sensitivity that he sometimes conceals beneath a brusque persona.
Max Guazzini, the president
