Fabien Galthié

Fabien Galthié (born 20 March 1969) is a French rugby union coach and former player. His usual position was at scrum-half. He played much of his club rugby for Colomiers, and later on in his career, Stade Français. Galthié won 64 caps for France, including four Rugby World Cup appearances, as well as captaining the side at the 2003 World Cup. Former France national coach Bernard Laporte has described him as the greatest scrum-half in French history.[1] He was the IRB International Player of the Year in 2002.

Playing

Born in Cahors, Galthié began his career at a club in Tournefeuille, before joining Colomiers. He made his international debut for France in a match against Romania in June 1991. In 1991 he found himself getting a call up into France's 1991 Rugby World Cup squad, replacing the injured Pierre Berbizier. At the 1995 Rugby World Cup he played in the semi-final defeat to South Africa.

Galthié was a crucial member of the French team that upset New Zealand in the semi-final of the 1999 Rugby World Cup at Twickenham. In 2000, Colomiers reached the French championship final, but Galthié had to watch from the stands due to a knee injury. The club lost 28–23 to Stade Français, whom he joined the following season. In 2001 Galthié was appointed captain of France. A successful year in 2002, including a Six Nations Grand Slam, saw France dominate the 2002 IRB Awards, with Galthié named Player of the Year as well as French coach Bernard Laporte being named Coach of the Year.

Galthié captained France at the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia, and secured France's bonus point against Scotland in their third game, scoring the fourth try in the game. He did not play in France's final pool game against the United States. Galthié returned for the next game, the quarterfinal against Ireland which they won convincingly, but in the semi-final they lost to England 24–7. Following their semi-final defeat, France contested the third place play-off with New Zealand. Afterwards Galthié announced his retirement from international rugby.

Galthié won his only club trophy on his last competitive match, the French championship final with Stade français against Toulouse on 7 June 2003 at Stade de France (32–18).

Coaching

Galthié became the coach of Stade Français after head coach Nick Mallet departed the Paris club. Galthié was contacted by Max Guazzini to take up the coaching job. In the first season, Paris made it to the final of both the Top 14 and Heineken Cup finals, but were beaten by Biarritz Olympique and Toulouse respectively. The following season Paris were beaten by Toulouse in the Top 14 semi-final, and they were knocked out of the Heineken Cup by Leicester. He left Paris in 2008 to become a TV pundit with the French public national channel France 2 and private radio Europe 1. He was joined the Argentina coaching staff during their end-of-the-year tour of Europe in November and December 2008. Galthié signed a three-year coaching contract with Montpellier in 2010. Galthié proceeded to lead Montpellier to a Top 14 Final in his first year although his team had a much smaller budget than the rest of the league and merely a handful of internationally recognised players. His stint as coach came to an abrupt end at the end of 2014 due to poor relations with the President of Montpellier Rugby Club.