France put faith in Ntamack and Dupont
For the third time in as many weeks, Jacques Brunel has completely torn up his selection form book.
The farce that is the French national rugby team at the moment at least looks like it’s taken the first step towards getting its house in order. Brunel has dismissed the half-back pairing of Morgan Parra and Camille Lopez, fresh from revealing to French media the true shambles of the 44-8 defeat by England two weekends ago.
Speaking on Tuesday following the early team announcement to face Scotland, Brunel insisted that this was not due to their words in the wake of that Twickenham defeat, and that was actually a reasonable
explanation given how poor scrum-half Parra played and how ineffective fly-half Lopez has been this championship.
Gone too are centre Geoffrey Doumayrou and Yannick Camara, the flanker despatched as quickly as he was brought back in, while captain Guilhem Guirado has survived a vote of confidence among the squad to continue to lead the side – stemmed partly through their trust in his ability to lead by example and partly through the complete lack of alternatives to replace the hooker. But while the focus has been firmly on those given the axe – with the quartet not even making the replacements’ bench – perhaps more attention should be on what France may finally be trying to achieve.
Whether it was always Brunel’s intention to go back to his past selection preference against England, only he will know, but the team that will take on Scotland this Saturday looks something like the one that tore Wales apart during the first half of their curtain-raising encounter at the start of the month.
Romain Ntamack, the 19-year-old son of former Les Bleus centre Emile, is back in the fold and this time around given the reins in the No 10 shirt. It’s a bold call from Brunel, one that could easily backfire this weekend given his lack of playing time there for Toulouse this season. However, playing the evidently talented teenager will not harm his development even if his future is not at No 10, though there is a growing belief in France that he could forge quite the career there post-Brunel if the French Rugby Federation (FFR) bring in a coach who puts the emphasis on the fly-half as the key playmaker.
The selection of Antoine Dupont at scrum-half weighs further towards that theory. Dupont has proven one of the bright sparks behind Toulouse’s revival this season and understandably will make Ntamack’s role easier due to their club telepathy. At 22 years old, he has his best years in front of him, and yet he made such a positive impact when coming onto the field when the game was already gone. Dupont gave England’s defence problems around the ruck in ways that Parra could not, and in just 33 minutes he made 11 breaks for 78 metres, beating nine defenders along the way. In comparison, only No 8 Louis Picamoles had more carries, while no other player could beat him for metres or defenders beaten across 80 minutes. With Gael Fickou also restored to centre, Yoann Huget moving back to the wing and Thomas Ramos coming into the side at full-back, Brunel has done the unthinkable: he’s named backs in their natural positions. The way that England exposed Huget at full-back nine days’ ago should be enough to ensure that he is never seen in the No 15 shirt for France again, while Fickou is very much the man who never was; a player with the potential to be among the world’s best yet who has only turned it on in sporadic moments throughout his career. With Wesley Fofana set to retire after the Rugby World Cup this year, this is the perfect chance for Fickou to show he is his long-term successor.
The only other change sees Wenceslas Lauret restored to blindside flanker as Fofana and Maxime Medard
failed to recover in time to make the side – the latter is included on the bench though – while two relatively young half-backs are preferred among the replacements instead of Parra and Lopez in 24-yearold Baptiste Serin and 22-year-old Antony Belleau. The upshot of that is a reprieve for Mathieu Bastareaud, though had Fofana been fit his place in the side would surely have been in jeopardy, yet Brunel’s selection this week is more the risk-for-reward that epitomised their display against Wales that brought so much promise, even if they managed to throw it all away themselves. But perhaps the most important selection for French hopes of a revival this weekend is not what Brunel has chosen, but what opposite number Gregor Townsend cannot. Scotland’s ridiculous injury list saw their two highest-profile names added this week, with Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg ruled out of the trip to Paris with concussion and shoulder damage respectively.
The Scottish Rugby Union, arguably the leaders in tackling the delicate issue that is concussion, confirmed on Tuesday that Russell has been ruled out of Saturday’s encounter after failing to pass the return-to-play protocols since injuring his head while turning out for Racing 92 at the weekend. Those of course are the dangers of playing your club rugby outside of your home nation, as the bulk of Russell’s teammates had their feet up at the weekend, stood down from duty in the fear of suffering injury that would impact their Six Nations campaign. It leaves Townsend with a decision over playing the inexperienced Adam Hastings at 10, with just four Test starts to his name, or Worcester stand-off Duncan Weir, who is back in the frame after a resurrection
of late at Sixways but who hasn’t been seen staring a Test in Dark Blue since the 2016 Six Nations.
The rest of Scotland’s long list of absentees makes painful reading – Huw Jones, John Barclay, Ryan Wilson, Hamish Watson and WP Nel just a handful – which will buoy the French side. If Dupont and Ntamack can make Les Bleus click in the same way they did in Paris nearly three weeks ago, then vive la revolution.