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France suffer Damian Penaud blow on eve of Six Nations
By Jon Newcombe
Record-breaking wing Damian Penaud could miss the start of the Guinness Men’s Six Nations after suffering a muscular injury in a training session on Sunday.
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The French medical team will continue to monitor the injury ahead of the opening game of the Championship against Wales in Paris on Friday, January 31st.
“He had a little pain with a small muscle problem so we’ll see. He will undergo tests, we will know more in the coming days,” explained assistant attack coach Patrick Arlettaz in a press conference after training.
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“Apparently, it’s not very serious … we know that the first training sessions are intense, we’re pulling a little”, he continued,
Penaud has been in sensational form for Bordeaux, scoring a Champions Cup record six tries against the Sharks a fortnight ago and has 15 tries in 10 appearances for the season overall.
The double hat-trick scorer finished as the Six Nations top try-scorer in 2023, having shared the accolade with his team-mate, Gabin Villière, the year before.
However, after scoring in the first round against Ireland in last year’s Six Nations he failed to cross the whitewash in the remaining four matches. He then missed the Autumn Nations Series due to illness.
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Villière is one of the main options to replace Penaud, with young speedster Louis Bielle-Biarrey expected to fill the other wing spot.
Théo Attissogbé is another contender unless Fabien Galthié decides to turn one of his centres, either Émilien Gailleton or Yoram Moefana, into a makeshift winger.
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France have so many incredible players in every position that mostly injuries don't matter but losing Penaud is without a doubt a loss. They have loads of very good wingers but Penaud is a wizard. He's not the fastest or the biggest but man his instinct for the tryline is second to none. He just constantly pops up exactly where he's needed and seems to make all the correct decisions and always have the bounce of the ball go his way like he's reading the code of the damned matrix.
On one hand, I totally agree with the superlatives for Penaud. On the other, with all due respect to Wales I don't think it would be that costly for France if Villiere or LBB starts at 14.