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‘It’s true’: France playmaker Romain Ntamack drops Super Rugby hint

Romain Ntamack of France celebrates his try during the Autumn Nations Series match between France and New Zealand on November 20, 2021 in Paris, France. (Photo by Catherine Steenkeste/Getty Images)

French fly-half Romain Ntamack may be on the way to play in either Australia or New Zealand sometime in the future after dropping an intriguing Super Rugby bombshell in a recent radio interview.

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Ntamack, 24, is widely considered one of the most electric playmakers in Test rugby. The Toulouse pivot is simply the type of player that every team would love to have among their ranks.

While the 37-Test out-half appears comfortably settled at boyhood club Toulouse and with the French national team, Ntamack may head south later in his career.

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After releasing his autobiography called “Le rugby dans le sang” – which translates to ‘Rugby in the Blood’ – Ntamack was a guest on French radio where he hinted at a future move to Super Rugby.

“It’s not necessarily relevant right away,” Ntamack told RTL. “But it’s true that the southern hemisphere has always attracted me.

“Since I was little, I’ve always watched Super Rugby.”

Along with French captain Antoine Dupont at halfback, Ntamack is one part of the most exciting halves duo in Test rugby. The pair are lethal as individuals, but deadly as a rugby combination.

But in the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup on French soil, both Ntamack and French rugby were dealt a tough hand. Ntamack sustained a devastating injury that ruled him out of the tournament.

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Ntamack ruptured his left knee ligament during a win over Scotland in August. Bordeaux’s Matthieu Jalibert stepped into the No. 10 jersey during the World Cup and was phenomenal.

But France fell short of their dreams and expectations. Without Ntamack, France were sent packing in the quarterfinals after losing to eventual champions South Africa in a one-point thriller

Fans, players and coaches were left devastated as they left to ponder where it went wrong. But in the wake of the defeat, Ntamack has unequivocally defended coach Fabien Galthie.

“I think that with everything he has brought to this team over the last four years, even this elimination in no way calls into question all the work that has been done,” Ntamack added.

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“He’s the man for the job and there is obviously no debate about that.”

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Comments

11 Comments
C
Chris 412 days ago

Cool. Be good to see him take down the Crusaders at another outfit

G
GrandDisse 412 days ago

Strange move when you look at the current form of Super Rugby, but he has been talking about going there for a while now. Looking for new challenges I guess, he already won everything with Toulouse.

J
JL 412 days ago

Not a great career move playing in a sub-standard league…

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JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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