XV of France: called up for the first time, Toulonnais Esteban Abadie “keeps his feet on the ground”

Author of a remarkable start to the season with RC Toulon, third row Esteban Abadie, trained at Racing 92 and passed through CA Brive, was called up to the French team to prepare for the first match of the Six Nations Tournament, the Friday February 2 against Ireland at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille. This Tuesday, he presented himself to the press in the role of a future French international. "I'm happy to be here. I'm getting to know the group, even though we play most of the guys every weekend. We also have to learn the game plan, review the combinations in the evening in our little notebooks,” he confided.

And added: “The best thing is to stay yourself and give your best to get into the 23. The step is high and there is competition. Everything in its time." The RCT player also returned to his atypical career, as Fabien Galthié likes. “I have an atypical background: I learned my skills in Brive then in Toulon, I took advantage of the absence of several players to play and continue during the World Cup. The doors opened. But I keep my feet on the ground.”

Recently, he was hit in the knee but he wanted to be reassuring about the state of his injury. “I am returning after three weeks without playing following a sprain of the internal knee ligament (against Stade Français at the end of December). I did what was necessary to come back on time.” In the absence of Anthony Jelonch (ruptured cruciate ligaments in his right knee), Esteban Abadie could find a place on the substitutes' bench to challenge the XV du Trèfle, author of the Grand Slam last year. And smile: “You have to create automatisms. It will come through playing, we have work and things to learn. In the evening, we are on our notebooks to revise. This is the case for us, the new ones, but for the others too.”