France vs Fiji rugby Championnat des nations kickoff time and TV channel, Digi Mart USA News (Lyon, France): The Championnat des Nations returns this early November, with Fabien Galthié’s France side set to play four matches, starting with Fiji on Saturday.
The competition, which has replaced the traditional autumn tour, is a series of three matches against Southern Hemisphere nations featuring the elite of international rugby. France will then face a possible final at the end of the month in London.
France opened with a narrow 34-32 defeat in New Zealand, then won 42-26 in Australia and 42-15 in Japan. The team will now face Fiji, South Africa and Argentina.
Currently top of the northern pool, France hope to retain that position to reach a late-November final against the top-ranked team in the southern pool, currently South Africa, which remains unbeaten, as is New Zealand, with 15 points out of a possible 15.
France will host Fiji in Lyon on Saturday at 9:10 p.m. As in July, all Championnat des Nations matches will be broadcast on TF1, with commentary for the France-Fiji match provided by Stefan Etcheverry and Xavier Garbajosa.
Fabien Galthié and his staff have made several adjustments for this opening match, which is without a number of key players, including Marchand, Flament, Meafou, Ramos and Jalibert, as well as emerging players Brau-Boirie and Gazzotti. Théo Attissogbe will start at fullback, behind a Dupont-Ntamack halfback pairing making its return to the blue jersey for the first time since March 2025.
Maxime Lamothe will start at hooker, with a second row of Verhaeghe and Guillard, while François Cros will play at number eight.
