XV of France: towards a Hastoy-Jalibert match to replace Ntamack at the opening

2023-08-15 13:50:07

The shock of opener Romain Ntamack’s package for the World Cup is still fresh but the staff of the XV of France was quick to think about the rest of the operations. A priority question must be decided: who will now wear the number 10 jersey to form the hinge alongside scrum half and captain Antoine Dupont? The World Cup opener against New Zealand is fast approaching (September 8). And there are only 2 friendly matches left until then to test a new hinge (France-Fiji on August 19 and France-Australia on August 27).

According to our information, the option which would have consisted in shifting the back-scorer Thomas Ramos at the opening, in particular by virtue of his complementarity with his club partner in Toulouse, would not be favored by coach Fabien at this stage. Galthié and his assistants. These would rather be in favor of leaving Ramos at the back and, therefore, of making a choice between the two professional openers of the group, Matthieu Jalibert (24 years old, 24 caps) and Antoine Hastoy (26 years old, 3 caps) .

Jalibert, the ideal replacement?

If the first named has for him a precedence in the group, a greater number of associations with Dupont and an innate sense of attack, there is still no guarantee at this stage that he will be the holder. His ability to come off the bench to be decisive at the end of the match, as was the case in the fall of 2022 against Australia and Japan, his 10-15 versatility also make him an ideal substitute.

Antoine Hastoy, who is coming out of a big season with La Rochelle and who has a more managerial profile, also provides more defensive guarantees, which could tip the balance in his favor. But he only has 3 selections and no association with Antoine Dupont.

The first training sessions of the week in Capbreton (the first this Tuesday at 4:15 p.m.) should make it possible to see things more clearly quickly. To consider, of course, that the staff decides to align its new hinge-type against Fiji, this Saturday in Nantes.