The autumn starts tonight. France vs Fiji kicks off at 21:10 on Saturday 7 November at Groupama Stadium in Lyon, the fourth round of the new Nations Championship and the first home outing of a November that ends with two evenings at the Stade de France. Les Bleus arrive top of the Northern Hemisphere table. Fiji arrive with nothing to lose, which is exactly what makes them dangerous.
Fabien Galthié has handed the keys back to his most famous half-back pairing. Antoine Dupont captains the side at scrum-half, with Romain Ntamack outside him at fly-half, and Louis Bielle-Biarrey returns on the left wing. It is the first squad of the season for the head coach, one year out from the 2027 World Cup in Australia, and it reads like a statement of intent.
France vs Fiji: the team Galthié picked for Lyon
The starting XV, as reported by Équipe de France and Orange Sport and confirmed by FloSports, blends certainties and fresh faces:
- Back three: Théo Attissogbe at full-back, with Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang and Louis Bielle-Biarrey on the wings.
- Centres: Yoram Moefana and Kalvin Gourgues.
- Half-backs: Romain Ntamack and Antoine Dupont (captain).
- Back row: Cameron Woki, Paul Boudehent and François Cros at No. 8.
- Front five: Jean-Baptiste Gros, Maxime Lamothe and Sipili Falatea, with Mickaël Guillard and Florian Verhaeghe in the second row.
The bench is loaded six forwards to two backs: Peato Mauvaka, Jefferson Poirot, Régis Montagne, Charles Ollivon, Tom Staniforth and Esteban Capilla, plus Maxime Lucu and Émilien Gailleton. According to Équipe de France, Capilla, 23, has yet to win a cap, so tonight could be a first.
The absences tell their own story. Thomas Ramos, whose last-kick penalty sealed a 48-46 win over England and the Six Nations title in March, is out for the November window. Reuters also reported that fly-half Matthieu Jalibert is injured, while second-rows Thibaud Flament and Emmanuel Meafou are missing. Oscar Jegou withdrew this week after picking up a rib injury in training. Grégory Alldritt, back in the wider squad for the first time since November 2025, sits among the non-playing reserves.
A table to defend, a tournament still young
France have won two of their three Nations Championship matches, the defeat a narrow one in New Zealand during the summer tour before wins in Australia and Japan, the last of them 42-15. That leaves Les Bleus on 12 points, first in the Northern Hemisphere pool.
The format is new and worth a quick reminder. Six northern and six southern nations each play six matches, three in July and three in November. Then, according to the competition schedule, every team meets its equivalently ranked rival from the other hemisphere at a finals weekend at Twickenham from 27 to 29 November. First place in the north means a shot at the south’s best.
Fiji, by contrast, are still chasing a first win in the competition; FloSports reports that they lost 33-17 to Scotland last time out. Yet anyone who has watched the Flying Fijians knows the scoreboard rarely tells the whole story. Their offloading game and broken-field speed can punish a single loose kick, and Galthié’s men will want to play with the ball rather than kick it away cheaply.
The road to the Stade de France
Lyon is the opening act. The headline dates are Parisian: France host South Africa on Friday 13 November at the Stade de France, then close the home window against Argentina on Saturday 21 November at 21:10, again in Saint-Denis. Two southern heavyweights in eight days, under the lights of the stadium that staged the NFL’s first game in Paris only weeks ago, as we covered in NFL Paris: What Comes Next.
That is why tonight matters beyond the result. With Ramos and Jalibert unavailable, Galthié needs his reshaped back line to find rhythm quickly; with Flament and Meafou absent, the second row of Guillard and Verhaeghe faces a real audition. A clean, confident win in Lyon would send Les Bleus to Paris with momentum, and with their place at the top of the table intact.
For our part, the plan is simple: a late dinner, a good bottle and the Dupont-Ntamack axis back in blue. If our last Saturday column took us to Mexico City for Kimi Antonelli’s title chase, this week the drama is very much at home.
Sources
- Équipe de France — 5 November 2026
- Orange Sport / Media365 — 5 November 2026
- FloSports via Yahoo Sports — 5 November 2026
- Reuters via The Star — 21 October 2026
- Stade de France — France v South Africa — accessed 7 November 2026
- Stade de France — France v Argentina — accessed 7 November 2026
- 2026 Nations Championship (Wikipedia) — accessed 7 November 2026
- 2026 Six Nations Championship (Wikipedia) — accessed 7 November 2026
Cover photo: Photo: James Coleman — Unsplash
