France legend Thierry Dusautoir picks Les Bleus to win the 2025 Men's Guinness Six Nations

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The legendary former France captain Thierry Dusautoir, is backing Les Bleus to win their first Men’s Six Nations title since 2022. Dusautoir believes that Fabien Galthie’s men will take the trophy back to Paris come the end of the competition, with the returning Antoine Dupont set to spearhead the campaign.

Dusautoir was asked to predict the tournament’s final table at the culmination of Round Five, and sees no side toppling his fellow countrymen from the top spot. Speaking to Genting Casino about the upcoming competition, Dusautoir laid out his predictions;

Find your local Greene King and settle in for the 2025 Six Nations!

“Number one, France, number two Ireland, number three England, number four Scotland, number five Italy, number six Wales. Italy were quite interesting during the last Six Nations. They have some young and very promising backs.

“Italy are still improving and Gonzalo Quesada is doing a good job there. I remember last year they should have won against us. They deserved it too. I hope that they’re starting to build some consistency and to be able to show that they are playing better rugby right now. Their problem has been no consistency, up and down every year.”

France will host the curtain raiser for the 2025 Men’s Six Nations, as the Stade de France set to be packed to the rafters with a partisan Parisan crowd. Les Bleus host Wales tomorrow night in Paris (20:15 KO GMT), and Dusautoir can only see one winner from the opening match of the competition.

“Welsh rugby is in a bad place. For France, playing at home is very important. It is a good place to start for us. Wales have a lot of young players without much international experience. We have to take this opportunity to win the game and to give us confidence.”

Despite Dusautoir’s confidence to see his former side secure the Six Nations silverware, the iconic back row is uncertain as to whether Galthie’s men have what it takes to win the fabled Grand Slam. There is no doubt that key injuries have hindered France’s preparations, and Dusautoir could see either Ireland or England disrupting any plans for an undefeated run.

“I don’t think so. It is possible but I don’t think so because I don’t think we are at the level of 2022, which was our last Grand Slam. And at the same point, I think that England is coming back slowly, Ireland is not as weak as we would like to think, I think that we are able to win it. We will win the title but not as a grand slam.

“I think that we are just passing a year of transition in 2024 because we've needed to recover from the disappointment of the World Cup.  They have also suffered injuries to key players and with Dupont unavailable that has helped us push forward other young players such as Romain Bouros and Marko Gazzotti.

“So now for the Six Nations I think the French team is getting back on track and you will have players like Dupont who is going to come again, he is a phenomenon. I think that for any team it’s not the same to play against France without Antoine Dupont. Unfortunately, we have a lot of injuries. Charles Ollivon will not be there, and Gael Fickou, Jonathan Danty and the props Jean-Baptiste Gros and Cyrille Baille. Hopefully we will start to continue the progression during the Six Nations.”

Scanning the field for France’s biggest rivals for 2025 Six Nations glory, and Dusautoir hammered home how Ireland and England are the main threats to Galthie’s side. However, the former France skipper highlighted how Andy Farrell’s absence from the Ireland team could disrupt the cohesion that secured back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024, whilst also looking out on an ever improving English side.

“Andy Farrell's absence creates a different dynamic. They didn’t show the normal confidence and control that they used to show the past years during the Autumn Internationals, so maybe there will be an opportunity there.

“But besides France, who realistically will be able to beat them? I don’t think Wales because they’re not playing good rugby right now. I don’t know about England because it’s not the English team that we talked about some years ago. But they did well in New Zealand last summer and only lost by a few points. It's true that maybe Ireland is not as good as they used to be. But they still have a good chance.”

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