TheFrog wrote: ↑Mon Aug 14, 2023 12:40 pm
boere wors wrote: ↑Mon Aug 14, 2023 10:15 am
How big a blow is that for the french? Ntamack seems to be getting a lot of slack usually. How are the backup 10s?
Ntamack was a master at getting his back line in action.
Jalibert, the likely replacement, is a great puncher with a vision for opportunities. But he is less of a game manager and a more flaky defender.
Hastoy, the third choice is more of a game manager, but less skilled than Jalibert.
The other big thing is that Ntamack and Dupont play together week in, week out. They understand each other without having to talk.
Except that's a blatant lie. Ntamack has spent his entire intl career hampering the backline. We can argue the toss (much like Farrell debates) about whether it's the player or the way he has been instructed to play or both. But fact remains Fra has squeaked home a number of games in recent years which they should have already won comfortably but got over the line because Jalibert came on late. Even in the Sco warm up, Jalibert was involved in 2 tries. Ntamack scored against Sco but it was Dupont who created all the real chances.
Jalibert is not a flaky defender. That implies he is inconsistent. He is simply a weak defender all the time. Ntamack has a reputation built around being a good defender but acted the turnstile in a number of recent games: waving oppos to the line a la Garbajosa. His injury came about in failing to tackle Russell.
Jalibert is at least as injury prone as Ntamack so there is every possibility he won't make it through the RWC. He's also more of a selfish dick than Ntamack but that's not really relevant.
Hastoy is between the 2: not Ntamack's pace and not Jalibert's flair. But he is reliable and can manage a game: you have to when you play for LaR under ROG.
Note that Ntamack is a poor dead ball kicker, Jalibert is better and Hastoy the best. That might matter if Ramos is off, gets injured or has one of his meltdown days.
Since the whole set up has been designed around a Dupont-Ntamack axis and Hastoy is much closer to Ntamack than Jalibert, I would rather see Hastoy start.
