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pauline Bourdon Sansus (left) and Gaëlle Hermet (right) during the 2022 Crunch, played at Twickenham. Nick Browning/News Images / News Images / Panoramic
Clubs represented, series and records, number of Grand Slams, an England Blue…: everything you need to know about this Saturday’s Crunch.
Where to see France-England
The final of the 2024 Tournament, a Grand Slam at stake for the two rivals, will be played this Saturday at the Chaban-Delmas stadium in Bordeaux. Kick-off at 5:45 p.m. The Crunch is broadcast live on France 2, with coverage starting at 5:15 p.m. A meeting to also follow live with commentary on the figaro.fr website.
Black sequence
The Blues have revenge to take. They remain in fact on a series of… twelve defeats in a row against their English rivals. The last French success against the Red Roses dates back to the 2018 Tournament. At the Stade des Alpes in Grenoble, the French women won on the wire and in one breath, 18-17, with a try at the very end of the match. back Jessy Trémoulière. The average score of these twelve losses? 23 to 17. So close, so far…
Read alsoMedicine, family of athletes, New Zealand…, discovering Manae Feleu, the captain of the Bleues
Stade Bordeaux in force
The reigning French champion has, logically, the most selected for this Crunch, with six starting players, including the entire first row. Unhappy finalist of the last championship, Blagnac fields four girls (3 starters, 1 substitute) and the Grenoble Amazones one starter (captain Manae Feleu) and 4 substitutes. Followed by Stade Toulousain (3), Montpellier (the Ménager sisters), as well as LOU and Stade Français Paris (1 player on the bench each). Without forgetting the… English club of Ealing (see below).
Starting XV: Boulard (Blagnac) – Grisez (Stade Bordelais), Konde (Stade Bordelais), Vernier (Blagnac), M. Ménager (Montpellier) – (o) Queyroi (Blagnac), (m) Bourdon Sansus (Stade Toulousain) – R. Ménager (Montpellier), Hermet (Stade Toulousain), Escudero (Stade Toulousain) – Fall (Stade Bordelais), M. Feleu (cap, FCG Amazones) – Khalfaoui (Stade Bordelais), Sochat (Stade Bordelais), Deshaye (Stade Bordelais).
Substitutes : Riffonneau (Trailfinders Women), Mwayembe (FCG Amazones), Joyeux (Blagnac), Gros (FCG Amazones), T. Feleu (FCG Amazones), Chambon (FCG Amazones), Ciofani (Stade Français), Jacquet (Lyon OU).
16 Grand Slams at 5
Since the inclusion of the French XV in the Women’s Tournament in 1999 (three years after the first edition), England has completed the Grand Slam 16 times (in 28 editions contested). Far ahead of France (5 GC in 25 editions). The last flawless performance of Les Bleues dates back to 2018.
Records d’affluence
The 2023 Crunch, in front of 58,498 spectators filling Twickenham, on April 29, 2023, constitutes the attendance record for a women’s rugby match (ahead of the 2022 World Cup final between New Zealand and England, which brought together 42,000 people at Eden Park in Auckland). This Saturday in Bordeaux, the France-England poster will also set a record, that of the largest attendance for a women’s rugby match in France, with more than 27,000 spectators in the aisles of the Chaban-Delmas stadium.
A Blue from England
The young replacement hooker, Elisa Riffoneau (20 years old), has the particularity of playing for Ealing Trailfinders, a London club. La Tourangelle discovered rugby at US Joué-lès-Tours, before completing her training at Stade Rennais (2018 to 2023). At the start of the 2023 school year, the young woman, who must complete her third year of studies abroad at Sciences Po Rennes, chooses Brunel University in London. Whose campus also happens to be… the base camp of the Trailfinders Women. She plays alongside several English internationals, such as the formidable winger Abby Dow, second highest scorer in this Tournament (5 tries).
Elisa Riffoneau
FFR
