Fabien Galthie was left in tears, almost too emotional to speak after France humiliated England 53-10 in Saturday’s stunning Six Nations clash.
Flanker Francois Cros, a key cog for the dominant French side along with backrow teammate Gregory Alldritt and Charles Ollivon, hailed victory in the cauldron that is Twickenham, where France has not won in 16 years.
“It’s the only stadium in Europe we haven’t won since Fabien Galthie took over,” Cros said of the head coach in charge of Les Bleus after the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
The seven-try win was England’s heaviest home defeat, and third anywhere.
“It’s important for us to write history and try to win everywhere and against everyone,” Cros said.
“That’s another step tonight.”
French daily sports newspaper L’Equipe has teased Galthie as Indiana Jones on its front page on Friday, with the headline “Galthie with Les Bleus in the Temple of Doom” in a nod to Steven Spielberg’s film featuring Harrison Ford as Jones.
But Twickenham did not prove to be the trap for Galthie as it had been for his predecessors for nearly two decades.
However, French hooker Julien Marchand insisted that the record score on English soil was not a goal.
“You always see the score and obviously we are chuffed when it goes like that,” Marchand said.
“We know how important the points difference is to the summit of the Six Nations, we know that a match can change everything in a matter of minutes.
“Despite the big score, we will always try to regroup, focus and keep working. We had a good match, we are happy with the record score but not the goal. It shows a good performance.”
Full-back Thomas Ramos, named man-of-the-match for a 23-point display that included a scintillating opening try, said the result was a huge confidence boost.
“This is probably one of the best attacking games for a long time,” he said.
“It is important because it shows that we can produce goods at a high level. Today we show the level of this team.
An emotional Galthie said the victory had brought “joy, pleasure, emotion”.
“It’s the 34th game and we want to make it a game like that,” said the former scrum-half and France captain.
“It was a perfect day at Twickenham, so rare!”
Galthie is not keen to watch the Rugby World Cup 8 September-28 October which will be hosted by France.
“Tonight, we go back to the hotel and have a beer. Our goal is to win the Six Nations,” he said.
“We’ve learned a lot from each defeat. It’s important for us to play this game, despite losing to Ireland (in the Six Nations opener), to win.
“The World Cup is the next competition.”