On 19 January 2016, Novès named his first squad, including eight uncapped players. His first match in charge was on 6 February during the 2016 Six Nations Championship against Italy at the Stade de France. Novès bled 6 uncapped players in that match day team, defeating Italy 23–21. A week later, Novès led France to their first victory over Ireland since August 2011, running out 10–9 victors. Guy Novès' first defeat came on 26 February against Wales, losing 19–10, before going on to lose to Scotland, 29–18, for the first time since 2006. In the final match of the Championship, England had already secured the title, a win for France would only stop the grand slam. However, in a match in which France failed to score any tries, England were the victors 31–21. In June 2016, France toured Argentina for a two-test series. Unfortunately for Novès, due to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Top 14 organizers did not schedule any games during the pool phase of the tournament, which meant it would end at a later date than normal. Therefore, the semi-finals and final of the 2015–16 season would coincide with the June international window, clashing with the French games on the 19 and 25 June. Due to this, Novès named 12 uncapped players in his touring squad, and 7 players who had played less than 10 tests for their country. The first test was lost 30–19, in a match that had 10 new players capped for the first time. However, a week later, France defeated Argentina 27–0, the first time Argentina has failed to score any points in a test match since they lost 16–0 against Ireland in 2007. It is the first time they have failed to score any points against France since their first ever meeting in 1949. During the 2016 end of year tests, Novès led France to a single victory, beating Samoa 52–8 in the opening week of their November series. The following two tests saw France lose narrowly to Australia 25–23 and New Zealand 24–19.