You feared for Matthieu Jalibert. Left out of France's starting line-up for a game against Japan in November 2024, the extravagantly talented fly-half vented his frustration to attack coach Patrick Arlettaz and the team's mental skills staff. Unfortunately for Jalibert, news of his dissatisfaction reached head coach Fabien Galthie. "We had a long discussion. He told me he sensed I was not doing very well... that I could go home," Jalibert told newspaper Sud Ouest. So Jalibert did, leaving camp rather than sitting on the bench against the All Blacks the following week. Heading out of the set-up and good graces of Galthie can be a one-way trip. After finished his playing career in 2003, the former France scrum-half coached at Stade Francais, Montpellier and Toulon. Several of his former players were bruised by the experience. "As a person, you're worthless. You should be banned from coaching. You tear your players apart like a dachshund tearing at bad bits of meat," said former Stade Francais wing Raphael Poulain to Galthie in 2005 shortly before, unsurprisingly, leaving the club. "I wouldn't wish on anyone what I went through for a year and a half at my workplace," said Jean-Baptiste Peyras-Loustalet of his time working with Galthie at Montpellier. Galthie oversaw coaching environments which were brutal in their honesty, and just about everything else. For his critics, it was a personality cult overseeing a Hunger Games-style selection policy. Galthie, a deep thinker who reads philosophy and classical literature, has admitted he believes in an innate French characteristic, to fight hardest and best when pushed to the brink.