France suffer Rugby World Cup blow with Ntamack set to miss tournament
France have been handed a huge blow before their World Cup campaign after their fly-half Romain Ntamack was ruled out of the tournament through injury. The hosts are among the favourites for the crown but Ntamack is a key performer for Fabien Galthié’s side and his absence will be keenly felt.
Ntamack was withdrawn from France’s dramatic 30-27 victory over Scotland on Saturday and subsequent scans have revealed the injury was far worse than his coaches first thought.
The 24-year-old wrote on ‘X’ simply that “I’ll be back”, before France confirmed that he has ruptured his ACL and will miss the tournament. Compounding matters for Galthié, the loosehead prop Cyrill Baille will also be sidelined for five to six weeks with a calf injury, according to the French Rugby Federation.
Since the previous World Cup in Japan, Ntamack has established himself as France’s No 1 fly-half and he played every minute of France’s 2022 Six Nations grand slam winning campaign. His absence breaks up the partnership with scrum-half and Toulouse teammate Antoine Dupont and will force Galthié into a considerable reshuffle when he names his squad next week. Mathieu Jalibert is the front-runner to assume the No 10 jersey now, while Galthié could also move Thomas Ramos from fullback. Antoine Hastoy is another option.
France are far from the only side to endure upheaval at fly-half. The world No 1s Ireland have been without Johnny Sexton during their warm-up campaign due to suspension while Owen Farrell is expected to receive a ban on Tuesday which rules him out of the start of England’s tournament.
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Furthermore, Eddie Jones has named just one specialist fly-half in his Australia squad after the shock decision to omit the veteran Quade Cooper while South Africa will set about defending their title without Handre Pollard, who was surprisingly left out by the Springboks after recent injury struggles.