In 2019, France was represented in the final of the Rugby World Cup. Not its players, eliminated in the quarter-finals, but one of its referees: Jérôme Garcès refereed the final match of the competition, which saw South Africa beat England (32-12).
Admittedly, the presence of the England team meant that England's Wayne Barnes, the world's best official, was automatically sidelined. The Frenchman's presence, assisted on the touchline by fellow countryman Romain Poite, was nonetheless a consecration. In fact, throughout the entire tournament, there were five French assistant referees – the biggest contingent.
Four years on, French refereeing performance has followed the opposite trajectory to that of the French national team. For the home World Cup (September 8-October 28), only one principal French referee has been selected by the organizer, World Rugby: Mathieu Raynal. He will be accompanied by assistant referee Pierre Brousset.
"A very big disappointment," and even "a lack of understanding," grumbled Franck Maciello, head of refereeing at the French Rugby Federation (FFR), when the appointments were announced, regretting the absence of a number of top-level French officials. "It's not because the World Cup is taking place in France that there are any free rides," said Joël Jutge, World Rugby's refereeing boss and Maciello's predecessor at the FFR.
World Rugby was building up a pool of international referees three years before the start of the competition, and the squad for the 2023 World Cup included a number of Frenchmen. But in the meantime, two of them have decided to give up the whistle. This was the case for Alexandre Ruiz, who joined the Montpellier coaching staff in 2021 before taking over the reins at Soyaux Angoulême, and Pascal Gaüzère, who has moved into human resources. These career changes took the French authorities by surprise. At the same time, Poite, the assistant referee for the 2019 final, was pushed into international retirement by World Rugby in 2022. So, by referee selection time, the ranks were severely thinned.
And behind this retiring refereeing elite, the next generation is not quite ready. "Today, we're in a bit of a slump, with a lot of young referees arriving at the highest level, but who don't yet have the level required for a World Cup," said Jean-Marc Lhermet, FFR vice-president in charge of high-level refereeing.
The weak showing of French referees at the World Cup has also raised the question of the conditions under which they work, which no doubt had something to do with the departure of some of them. In France, almost all referees do not work full-time. Among those who officiated this season in the Top 14 league, there was one sports teacher, one dentist, an EDF agent and even an emergency doctor. Until now, they have been remunerated solely with match fees.
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