RWC: Willemse called in the initial France Rugby World Cup team
Wounded lock Paul Willemse was named in France's first Rugby World Cup 2023 training squad by the French Rugby Federation on Monday. Montpellier's Willemse, 30, has been sidelined since late April and will receive therapy as part of the 26-man group for a two-day campsite this week starting on Wednesday, in Marcoussis, to the south of Paris.
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Centre Arthur Vincent and winger Gabin Villiere are also comprised after improving from fitness matters with scrum-half Baptiste Serin and forward Yacouba Camara joining Willemse on the dealing table. Six uncapped players have been nominated by RWC head coach Fabien Galthie including the Top 14's leading try scorer in 19-year-old Pau centre Emilien Gailleton.
Players from Top 14 semi-finalists, Toulouse, racing 92, La Rochelle and Bordeaux-Begles are absent with the last four draws taking place this weekend. France's next drill camp, with 42 players, will take place in July in Monaco. Galthie will name his final 33-man group for the France Rugby World Cup on August 21, six days before Les Bleus' last pre-competition test with Australia.
Hosts, France open their Rugby World Cup 2023 campaign against three-time champions New Zealand national rugby football union team in Paris on September 8 before also facing Uruguay rugby football union team, Namibia rugby football union team and Italy rugby football union team in Pool A.
France star imprisoned and ruled out of RWC 2023 after a brutal attack on wife
France Rugby World Cup team player Mohamed Haouas has taken a one-year jail sentence and had his pact with Clermont ripped up after a video arose of his vile and repulsive abuse against his wife.
The prop’s new club Clermont Auvergne ended his agreement after he was handed a one-year prison ruling for domestic abuse which took place in a shopping centre.
The 29-year-old RWC player will open an appeal against the verdict, which means he remains free at the current moment but may be required to wear an electric tag. Le Parisien, M6Info and several other French media outlets have now published a video of the attack, which was taken by CCTV footage. Haouas can be seen racing his wife, Imane, through a door before kicking her legs.
Rugby World Cup: What happens in the video?
Haouas can be seen racing his wife, Imane, through a door before kicking her legs. She falls over and he hits her in the head. The France RWC star then picks her up by her t-shirt and escorts her away.
The 16-cap Frenchman was disqualified for four weeks during the Six Nations for head-butting Scotland’s Ben White and was disqualified for three weeks in 2020 for punching Scotland’s Jamie Ritchie.
With Orange and Monnaie de Paris, balanced awards for Rugby World Cup 2023
With less than 100 days to go until the opening game between France and New Zealand, the RWC medals have been formally exposed at the Monnaie de Paris, where they were designed, engraved and hit. With the help of Orange, the Official Sponsor of the competition, more than 200,000 used mobile phones were together and recycled to make the awards.
With an ambitious plan aimed at reducing the tournament’s ecological impact, France Rugby World Cup will be more than just a sporting event. With that goal in mind, world cup 2023 management is proud to have teamed up with the Orange Group and the Monnaie de Paris to make sustainable gold, silver and bronze medals for the competition from recycled mobile phone mechanisms.
Iconic signs of the game, the medals will be awarded to players and trainers from the teams taking the top three places at RWC 2023. The winners of the Webb Ellis Cup, the runners-up and the winners of the bronze final. Partaking medals will also be offered to all the players taking part in the contest. Rugby fans can book RWC Tickets on our website at exclusively discounted prices.
RWC medals that syndicate boldness and ritual
The Mobius strip that wraps around the France Rugby World Cup 2023 logo on the front of the medal is a unique and non-stop link connecting the players to the fans, rugby to society, and France to the world. And because the world cup draws its asset from the regions of France, their uniqueness and specific features, the ten host cities are signified through their very own signature.
The iconic Webb Ellis Cup contained on the back of the award is the ultimate prize for every rugby player and has been presented to the RWC winners every four years since 1987. It is named after William Webb Ellis, an undergraduate at Rugby School in England, who made sporting past in the autumn of 1823 by picking up the ball during a football game and running with it, flouting the rules in force at the time.
It was a troublemaking action that defied the norms, and its 200th anniversary is being celebrated in 2023. Bold yet traditional and uniting nods to its history and avant-garde spirit, the medal embodies France and rugby at their toughest. It is topped by a depiction of the Arc de Triomphe, the shrine where the country celebrates its greatest accomplishments and the scene of memorable expressions of joy.
A French manufacturing processes
Thanks to its “RE” plan, which provides phone recycling, returns and restoration services, the Orange Group played its part in the formation of the Rugby World Cup 2023 awards by arranging for the collection of used phones at its shops across France and from Campus 2023 trainees, FFR-member clubs and partner companies. The phones were sent to the French social and ecological cooperative Ateliers du Bocage for careful sorting.
Those in good condition were fixed and restored, while the rest were recycled and taken to a centre concentrating on the extraction of metals from electronic leftovers. The raw things were then ready by a company forming semi-finished and finished alloy goods. Working closely with the France teams, the Monnaie de Paris.
France's eldest and most memorable minting institution, designed, etched and struck the medals at its workshop. They will be accessible to the players taking part in France Rugby World Cup 2023 in an ecologically friendly case and attached to a ribbon made from recycled material.
Important facts and figures about RWC medals
A total number of 1,491 Rugby World Cup medals were made which includes gold, silver, bronze and participation medals, 206,000 used mobile phones were collected for these medals, 2,953kg of metal was recovered from 31 tons of damaged phones, 138 phones are used to make each medal and 220 participating clubs and groups. Over and above the test of providing connectivity for the world cup.
Orange must reply to the greatest challenge of our time caring for the environment. More than ever, we must support our patrons, partners and the general public by helping them to hold sustainability. These medals represent this creativity, promise and the ever-increasing number of circular-economy initiatives the Group is appealing to, particularly at major sporting events.
RWC 2023: Caroline Guillaume, Director of Communications, Orange Group
The awards that we are unveiling today are more than just superb collector’s items. They embody our goal to diminish our environmental impact as much as possible and to put the regions of France at the heart of the Rugby World Cup. I would like to thank all the teams from France 2023, Orange and the Monnaie de Paris for salaried together to collect the used phones, design the medals and mint them, helping to create a plan that means so much to us.
The Monnaie de Paris is proud of its ritual of celebrating major sporting events and worshipping athletes. Designing sustainable medals from recycled phones was a real challenge, but our factories rose to it in brilliant style. Thanks to these mementoes, the players at France Rugby World Cup 2023 will shine long after the tournament is over.
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