(Reuters) – France’s World Cup prospects have suffered with the injury to flyhalf Romain Ntamack but coach Fabien Galthie has several options to replace him, including Matthieu Jalibert, in-form Antoine Hastoy or even a switch from fullback for Thomas Ramos.
Hosts France had high hopes that their exciting pairing of Ntamack and scrumhalf Antoine Dupont would be the catalyst for home success, but must now look for solutions just weeks before they kick off against New Zealand in Paris on Sept. 8.
They had proved successful at both their club Toulouse and for their country, winning the Six Nations title two years ago and at club level being crowned European champions in 2021 and winning three of the last four French Top 14 titles.
It is a combination capable of devastating effectiveness, at eye-jolting pace and with a Gallic flamboyance, and the fact that France cannot use Ntamack will weigh heavily on the rest of their World Cup preparations.
He ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament on his left knee during the test against Scotland on Saturday, although it was initially suggested by Galthie that Ntamack’s replacement in the 58th minute was a precautional switch.
A scan on his knee, however, revealed the devastating news, dominating the French sports press on Tuesday. “How do we recover from this?” screamed the cover of L’Equipe.
But France will not have to turn too far. Jalibert is now expected to be first choice flyhalf, regaining the role he ceded to Ntamack in the 2022 Grand Slam success when sidelined by one of numerous injury setbacks he has struggled with in his career.
Jalibert was something of a teenage prodigy and has 24 caps, with 13 starts.
Hastoy is another other option for Galthie to consider. He won the European Champions Cup with La Rochelle this year but has won only three caps for France and played a total of 96 minutes of test rugby.
Ramos, hailed for his versatility in the backline, could also be a candidate but his preferred role is fullback. France name their World Cup squad next Monday.
Ntamack’s injury is the latest in a list of several key setbacks for World Cup-bound teams.
World champions South Africa lost out on the services of key centre Lukhanyo Am in their last warm-up game against Argentina when he suffered a serious knee injury while Australia captain Allan Alaalatoa misses out because of an Achilles tendon injury suffered against New Zealand last month.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson and Nick Said, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
