In July 2025, the France national rugby team toured New Zealand as part of the Summer International calendar. It was known as the 2025 Lipovitan-D July Series in New Zealand for sponsorship reasons, the three-test tour was publicly known as early as July 2024, with French media reporting that the French squad could possibly be without its key, top-performing players as the tour would also conflict with the current domestic competition in France. The domestic competition final took place just a week before the first tour match in Dunedin. It was also reported that the tour would allow for a new generation of French players to pick up more international caps and experience in preparation for the 2027 Rugby World Cup (RWC) in Australia.
Both national unions were in talks of moving one of the three test matches to be hosted in the United States, however the French Rugby Federation reportedly rejected the idea. It was France's eleventh tour of New Zealand and the eighteenth test-series between the two teams. It was Fabien Galthié's first tour of New Zealand as the head coach of France. The venue for the third test was held at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton on New Zealand's North Island. It was the first international test France has played at the venue.
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<small>Note: Ages, caps and clubs are as per 5 July, the first test match of the tour.</small>
On 24 June 2025, Fabien Galthié named France's 37-man squad for the 2025 France rugby union tour of New Zealand.
On 30 June 2025, Galthié added five Top 14 finalists who joined the France group for the New Zealand tour.
Coaching team:
On 23 June 2025, New Zealand named a 33-player squad for the series against France.
Christian Lio Willie and Emoni Narawa were added to the squad as injury cover for Luke Jacobson and Anton Lienert-Brown, respectively.
On 8 July, it was confirmed Scott Barrett had been ruled out with a calf tear injury sustained during the first Test in Dunedin. Ardie Savea took over the captaincy ahead of the second Test.
All squad members play rugby in New Zealand.
Coaching team:
In June 2024, with news of France's next tour being publicly known, French coach Fabien Galthié told L'ÃÂquipe that he had identified a group of 20 "premium" players that he wished to rest for their tour of New Zealand. In October 2024, the French Rugby Federation (Fédération Française de Rugby; FFR), the governing body of rugby union in France, and the National Rugby League (Ligue nationale de rugby; LNR), the organisation that manages the Top 14, announced the signing of an agreement on the release of French Top 14 players for international duty from 2025 until mid-2026. In the agreement the provisions outlined stated that a foundational group of 42 players will be assembled in two phases for France's 2025 tour. Initially, 28 eligible players will be selected following the 2024âÂÂ25 Top 14 play-off qualifiers (mid-June) to begin preparations for a France Development match, which will take place over the weekend of the 2024âÂÂ25 Top 14 semi-finals. This cohort will subsequently be augmented by players from the clubs eliminated in the semi-finals, bringing the total to 42. Players from the 2024âÂÂ25 Top 14 finalists, however, will be excluded from selection for these international periods. Thus, the top-performing French players would not be available for the French team touring New Zealand.
The announcement of the agreement and the subsequent affect it would have on the tour received a lot of attention and criticism in New Zealand and on social media. The Times journalist Will Kelleher wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter): "Interesting this, that France are taking a second team to NZ. New Zealand Rugby (NZR) officials are livid about it, as it devalues a mega series, and their ability to market it..." That same week New Zealand Rugby (NZR) announced they were surprised by the decision and asked the governing body of rugby union internationally, World Rugby, to clarify the French availability policy, citing World Rugby regulations. Former New Zealand international and Sky Sport pundit, Justin Marshall, stated: "We don't send our B team to play you at the end of the year because our players are tired. We send over our team to knock you over in your own backyard. Now, try and actually see it from our perspective that we want to have that environment." He added: "We want to have that feeling for our fans, for our people to see France with their number one team coming over here and taking us on... We treat you with respect. And I feel that if the French were to use the excuse of a long season and their players are tired, well, you know, that's just piss poor because we're exactly the same when we have to go in November, but we front."
In March 2025, French players Grégory Alldritt and Romain Ntamack expressed their desire to play for France on the tour despite the restrictive selection policy. Ntamack stated: "I don't really know yet what can be done or not, whether the finalists will be allowed to go to New Zealand. Maybe an exception will be made depending on the tour, because it's a pretty exceptional tour to go and play in New Zealand... Final or not, if we have to go, it will be with pleasure."
In June 2025, Jean-Marc Lhermet, Vice-President of the French Rugby Federation announced a new agreement that was made with the National Rugby League that relaxed some of the previous restrictions that were put on French players within the Top 14. In the new outlined conditions, French-eligible players that play for a Top 14 finalist team during the 2024âÂÂ25 season would now be available for selection. However, only players that had played less than 2,000 minutes of match-time (citing World Rugby player safety guidelines) would be eligible for selection, with a maximum selection cap of five players.
In June, the five players that were selected for France from the two Top 14 finalists were Joshua Brennan, Pierre-Louis Barassi, Nicolas Depoortère, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, and Pierre Bochaton.