At the Stade de France,
A small petty reflection that crossed our minds when Romain Ntamack came out, even before seeing him move his head slightly from right to left, in a gesture of annoyance as light as it was obvious. The guy is number 1 opener at the start of his mandate, brain of the best team in Europe (Toulouse), and already he finds himself obliged to shift in twelve to make room for Jalibert while defending in ten anyway. for the trouble, here is more he has to go feel the bench at the 50th minute like a vulgar quidam.
“We wanted to change the way we play”
55 minutes together with Jalibert, for not much. It’s like PSG, though. We are promised Neymar-Mbappé-Messi together on the meadow, so obviously we are excited like midinettes at the end of the morning. In short, this Dupont-Ntamack-Jalibert association, which promised a lot, disappointed in proportions at least as important against the Pumas. And if Ntamack paid for everyone, there is not much in the absolute. The staff just opted for a plan B worked all week at Marcoussis, including basically bringing in the masters of the bench to tip the boxing fight in the tricolor camp.
Fabien Galthié explained it like this, in any case:
“It was a possibility that we had depending on the scenario, that of changing our way of playing completely by bringing in Danty in first center. We felt that we needed to bring more impact. It is not so much the responsibility of Romain, but we were sometimes abused in the combat of confrontations, in the ground play. We chose to coach several players who brought us more solidity. It was a match where we had to change the organization in progress ”.
The coach brings us on a plateau the following recovery: If Roro had to go to the shower because he could not get into the opposing defense, role usually assigned to Vakatawa, does this mean that this repositioning in twelve is doomed to failure, when at the same time, Ntamack has never been called upon on his qualities – in particular kicking – on Saturday? “We will see if there was a lack of power in the midfield, answers Galthié. It is not only linked to a player but rather to a deficit of power or a deficit of intensity races and connection between the different players, the ball carriers and his supporters ”.
A power deficit at the center?
An elegant way to say that the Blues were so in trouble in the rucks in the first half, that a Hulk-Batman pair would not have done better in the center. And then the Argentines have the right to do their job too. “Playing with two forerunners is not a problem”, explains Gabin Villière, who we saw a lot of agitation to touch once or twice the inflate, the poor: “Once again it is above all the aggressiveness of the Argentines to go up hard and slow down the balls which prevented us from developing our game ”.
Moreover, when we ask this brave Mario Ledesma, so stranded as a high-level opener that he tries to install a small youngster (Carreras) still very unstable at this level, the Argentinian is practically the Badinter of Galthié against the death penalty and the end of the Jalibert-Ntamack experiment.
“The French did not make this choice for physical density but for the fluidity of the game plan. We must not forget that they have never played together in this configuration. Ntamack in this post reminds me of Slade or Giteau, a second playmaker with canes and a good foot. It will depend on the French staff, but I would insist ”.
Ntamack, a frustration to digest
And this in spite of the gross error of Jalibert, author of a referral cata on the first Argentine test, which could have cost him a premature change and a disavowal in public place. But no team member complained – “Everyone was kind to Matthieu, the high level brings errors of this type, it did not affect the team” dixit Dupont – and the opener of the Blues was Little by little, he settled into his opener’s chair with the whiskey and the slippers.
A nice pass to the line on the test of Flament, then another passage of the arms on the ground on the call of Mauvaka for the other tricolor test: In all the good offensive shots of the XV of France, Jalibert showed that he had thick leather, which you didn’t really doubt. It remains to be seen how long Ntamack will keep his moods to himself. If he does, of course, we can also be naïve.