Although Antoine Frisch was one of six players released from the French squad by head coach Fabien Galthié this week in advance of their Six Nations finale against England in Lyon on Saturday night, the Munster centre appears to remain highly valued by the coaching staff at Les Bleus.
Until such time as he is capped at international level, Frisch remains eligible for France, where he was born, and Ireland, through his Dublin-born and reared maternal Irish grandmother, Mary, who is 95 and lives in Devon. Indeed, Frisch is also eligible for England, through his London-born mother, Kim.
Unnervingly for Munster, who would probably be resigned to losing Frisch at the end of next season given their other centre Alex Nankivell is also non-Irish qualified, French designs on Frisch are genuine according to Nicolas Jeanjean, the former Toulouse and French fullback who is part Galthié's strength & conditioning team.
“Fabien has really been in a relationship with him for several seasons,” said Jeanjean.
“It’s the player who will decide, of course, but he’s a French player born in France who seemed delighted to be here. On Tuesday, we had a slightly more difficult session with him as he hadn’t played last week and there were a lot of smiles, a lot of commitment.
“I think that if he’s here, it is because he’s committed and he’s proud to wear the colours that are his at the moment.”
While Frisch was part of the Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa last September, Ireland are well stocked in midfield with Bundee Aki, Robbie Henshaw, Garry Rinrgose and Stuart McCloskey.
It’s hard to envisage Frisch being capped in one of the summer’s two Tests in South Africa whereas France have two Tests in Argentina.
“He’s a player with the profile of a grafter, someone who tasted the highest level quite late, through strong choices, since he left for another country to be exposed to the highest level,” said Jeanjean, who noted it was the first time the French conditioning staff had exchanged information with an Irish province.
“They sent us a whole bunch of data from his training and when Antoine returns to the club, we will also send data from his sessions with us. It’s healthy and interesting.”
