France faces 14-day quarantine

DOWN UNDER: France will have to observe a two-week isolation period before July’s three-match Test series in Australia, the French Rugby Federation’s vice-president Serge Simon told AFP on Friday.

Les Bleus will play the Wallabies in Sydney on July 7, then in Melbourne six days later before finishing the tour in Brisbane on July 17.

Any Les Bleus players featuring in June 25’s French Top 14 final will be unable to play the opening Test.

“The 14-day quarantine is mandatory. There will be a training camp, however,” Simon said.

“The team will be able to train but without contact with outsiders.

“The decision about the make-up of the squad will be made in the next two weeks by the coaching staff, and they will adapt in the most reasonable way to the conditions that are not ideal,” Simon said.

The series will be Fabien Galthie’s first games against southern hemisphere opposition since taking over as France head coach after the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The Wallabies won the last meeting between the two sides in November 2016.