France head coach Fabien Galthie hailed colossus lock Emmanuel Meafou after his man-of-the-match performance in Sunday's 33-8 Six Nations victory over Italy.
Meafou played the entire 80 minutes alongside second-row partner Thibaud Flament and also scored France's second try.
Wary of Italy's forward power, Galthie had brought his engine room hulks Meafou and Flament back into the team in place of the more mobile Mickael Guillard and Charles Ollivon, who had started in the 36-14 victory over Ireland and 54-12 trouncing of Wales.
🏅 Today's #Guinness Player of the Match, France's Emmanuel Meafou 🤩#GuinnessM6N #Since1883 pic.twitter.com/VsS539KeRA
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) February 22, 2026
With France's scrum under pressure throughout the match, Galthie left on both locks for the entire match and introduced Ollivon and Guillard into the back row.
"The main thing was the work of the second row," Galthie told France Television. "We decided to leave them on for the whole match because they had not played much in this competition."
Galthie said he had told Meafou he could play the whole match.
"It was up to him to decide and in the end he decided to do so, he played a great match."
The New Zealand-born and Australian-raised 27-year-old praised his team-mates for how they fronted up to Italy's feared pack, which had dominated Scotland two weeks ago and caused Ireland all sorts of problems last week.
"We're satisfied. There were a few scrums where we were pushed back a bit but we're happy," Meafou said.
"We know that Italy have a very, very big scrum. They're very tough in the breakdown but yes, we're happy.
"They never gave up over the 80 minutes, so we're happy with our collective performance."
- 'Clean' defence -
Despite scoring five tries – with backs Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Thomas Ramos, debutant Gael Drean and Emilien Gailleton also crossing the whitewash – Galthie was happier with the defensive effort than the attacking one.
"For now, it's really an area where we've worked hard, we've made good choices and we're playing well in that respect," he said.
"Even though the Italians won more penalties than in previous matches... especially when we had the ball, defensively we were clean, but in attack we were turned over in the breakdown."
It was a happy debut for Toulon wing Drean, who started the match making two crunching tackles and finished it with a try.
He had not even been part of the matchday 23 announced by Galthie on Friday but was drafted straight into the starting XV late on Saturday night after fly-half Matthieu Jalibert was forced out with a calf issue.
Ramos was switched from full-back to fly-half, Theo Attissogbe moved from the right wing to the No.15 jersey, and Drean took his place on the flank.
"It wasn't perfect but I'm happy. It was a great ending," said Drean, who admitted that the previous night he was "a little bit nervous".
Italy captain Michele Lamaro acknowledged that France had been simply too clinical for his team, although he expressed frustration at the Azzurri's line-out troubles that cost them chances to attack from good field position.
"The scoreboard is always the truth of the game and we have to go with that," Lamaro told British channel ITV.
"France were unbelievably good at taking their opportunities, especially in the first half."
He added: "First half we made a couple of errors and second half we couldn't keep the ball. In line-outs we had a couple of opportunities.
"You are playing one of the best teams in the world, you have to be precise, you have to be concrete and you have to be playing at a high level."