Wing Penaud left out of France's Six Nations squad

France's all-time top try-scorer Damian Penaud is a shock omission from the defending champions' Six Nations squad before a potentially crucial opening-round match against Ireland on 5 February.

The 29-year-old wing has scored 40 tries in 59 appearances for his country and started all three of France's autumn internationals in November.

However his strike-rate has dipped this season. Penaud has crossed eight times in 16 matches for club and country so far, compared to 27 tries in 26 appearances in 2024-25.

His defence has also come in for criticism, with his failure to deal with a kick ahead by Northampton's Henry Pollock in a recent Bordeaux-Begles' Champions Cup win the latest evidence against him.

Penaud is one of several high-profile players to be culled by coach Fabien Galthie, with back row Gregory Alldritt, who captained the side in the wake of Antoine Dupont's injury at last year's Six Nations, and veteran centre Gael Fickou also left out.

Penaud, Alldritt, 28, and Fickou, 31, could all return, with coaches able to call up players during the Six Nations campaign, however Galthie's selection seems a statement of intent before a meeting with Ireland, who won the 2023 and 2024 titles.

In Fickou's absence, Galthie has called up a clutch of young centres led by Toulouse's much-heralded 20-year-old Kalvin Gourgues, who won his first cap against Australia in November.

Eleven of the 17 backs named have 10 caps or fewer, including Pau's London-born wing Aaron Grandider-Nkanang. The 25-year-old, who is yet to represent France in the 15-a-side game, previously won Olympic Sevens gold alongside Dupont at Paris 2024.

With Romain Ntamack sidelined with a back injury which reportedly will keep him out of action for the first two matches of France's campaign, Bordeaux-Begles' in-form Mathieu Jalibert appears to be leading the race to start at fly-half.

Talismanic scrum-half Dupont is in line to return to Test rugby, after making his comeback from knee ligament damage suffered in last year's tournament.

With Maxime Lucu and Nolann Le Garrec ruled out with injury, scrum-half Baptiste Serin is back in favour, along with Cameron Woki and Charles Ollivon in the pack.

Forwards: Dorian Aldegheri, Uini Atonio, Hugo Auradou, Cyril Baille, Paul Boudehent, François Cros, Alexandre Fischer, Thibaud Flament, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Mickaël Guillard, Oscar Jegou, Anthony Jelonch, Maxime Lamothe, Julien Marchand, Temo Matiu, Peato Mauvaka, Emmanuel Meafou, Régis Montagne, Rodrigue Neti, Lenni Nouchi, Charles Ollivon, Dany Priso, Thomas Staniforth, Tevita Tatafu, Cameron Woki

Backs: Grégoire Arfeuil, Théo Attissogbe, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Fabien Brau-Boirie, Romain Buros, Thibault Daubagna, Nicolas Depoortere, Gaël Dréan, Antoine Dupont, Kalvin Gourgues, Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, Matthieu Jalibert, Yoram Moefana, Noah Nene, Thomas Ramos, Baptiste Serin, Ugo Seunes.

Damian Penaud is a throwback maverick.

His ambivalence about training has been noted by team-mates and coaches. His indifference about defence is frequently obvious on the pitch. Whatever tactics his team are working too, he is liable to shred those plans as soon as the whistle blows.

When he passed up several seemingly obvious chances to score in the win over Northampton 10 days ago, throwing unnecessary passes to team-mates instead, a theory emerged.

Having scored 14 tries – a record for a single edition of the tournament – en route to a Champions Cup triumph last season, Penaud was amusing himself by trying to set a new landmark for try assists in this campaign.

Bordeaux-Begles head coach Yannick Bru's, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, comments about Penaud chasing 'different trophies' fuelled the conspiracy.

Coaches have put up with Penaud's amateur-era eccentricities because, at his best, he is one of the finest wings in the modern game. A galloping, long-striding runner with a nose for a gap and the ability to confound a defence with the unexpected.

When that form runs dry though, patience can quickly wear thin.

Fabien Galthie is a very different character to Penaud. When Penaud's lacklustre, butter-fingered performance (among several of his team-mates') cost France against England in last year's Six Nations, the wing was unceremoniously dropped for the following round against Italy. Penaud returned, and scored, in the championship-defining win over Ireland.

This season though, without a rich run of try-scoring form to press his case, he finds himself on the outside.

Theo Attisogbe, who took Penaud's place last year when it was up for grabs and scored three tries in two Six Nations games, looks most likely to team up with Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Thomas Ramos in the back three.

Just as interesting will be Penaud's reaction. He will take heart from Bordeaux-Begles team-mate Mathieu Jalibert, who turned down a call-up for Galthie in November 2024 feeling he was undervalued as a back-up option.

That could have been the end of an international career. But Jalibert's fine form has won over Galthie and he is most likely to start the tournament at 10.

Can Penaud show the same hunger to regain his shirt?