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international women
With Pauline Bourdon Sansus unavailable for France’s three-Test tour of New Zealand, François Ratier named Alexandre Chambon as captain.
The 26-year-old scrum-half is the team’s third captain, with Manae Fele prioritizing her medical studies and Bourdon Sansus remaining in France in October for personal reasons.
Captain of her club, FC Grenoble Amazones, in the AXA Elite 1, Chambon will lead an inexperienced French team that will also be without Yllane Brosseau, Siobhan Soqete and Charlotte Escudero.
“First of all, a great sense of pride,” Chambon told France Rugby. “It’s a role that naturally brings that with it. I’m also very grateful to the coaching staff for the trust they’ve shown in me.”
“I hope this tour will be as wonderful as the one we had recently in France, because everything went so well there. I aim to support everyone as much as possible, because we have a team that still has a lot of new faces.”
“I know I will be well supported by Gabi (Gabriel Vernier), Annaëlle (Annaëlle Deshayes) and Lea (Léa Champon) – I even have a room with Lea,” continued Chambon.
“It makes the experience even better to share it with them. I already have a lot of experience playing alongside these players in the games and competitions we’ve been through together. We get along really well, which will help us a lot in this role and we’ll be able to support each other.”
France started theirs WXV Global Series campaign against the Black Ferns in Lyon, losing 28-14 to Whitney Hansen before recording a win against Australia and Canada.
Three more Test matches against New Zealand will certainly test France. The Black Ferns’ last defeat against the Red Roses at the Allianz Stadium was the team’s first defeat of 2026 and their first defeat against Hansen.
Facing the second-highest ranked team in the World Rugby rankings will be a huge challenge for France, who are still on their feet under Ratier since he took charge at the start of the calendar year.
“Obviously the goal is to go out and play well away from home against a top-four team,” Chambon said. “We showed that we are on the right track: we learn from every match and no two matches are the same.”
“That’s why we’re going to have to adapt and really go out and get results against the top four teams. New Zealand is one of them; we’re ready to face them three times, so we’ve got to find a way to beat them on their home turf. That’s the aim.”
