France’s Romain Ntamack to have scan on knee as World Cup looms
France outhalf Romain Ntamack will undergo a scan on his knee on Monday to see if there is any serious damage after limping off in their World Cup warm-up test against Scotland on Saturday, officials said.
The loss of the flamboyant pivot would be a big blow to the French ahead of their hosting of the World Cup, which kicks off in four weeks.
“Romain underwent a small hyper extension of the knee. We preferred to take him out of the game so there could be no further damage,” explained coach Fabien Galthié.
France also lost prop forward Cyril Baille to a calf injury as they scraped a 30-27 victory over the Scots at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.
France let slip a 27-10 lead after scoring two quick tries at the start of the second half, allowing Scotland to storm back and score three tries of their own in the last 20 minutes to level the score at 27-27.
A scrum infringement, however, handed France a penalty two minutes from the end which Thomas Ramos kicked over for victory.
“It remains a preparation match, with a different team from last weekend, who played together again for the first time since the end of March,” added Galthie.
“The Scots have a month and a half of preparation more than us because they finished their Championship in mid-May. Our goal is to continue preparing for a month and, even during the pool phase of the World Cup, there will be work to ramp up.”
It was the second successive Saturday that France played Scotland, and they had put out a second-string side at Murrayfield last weekend and lost 25-21.
But the team for the St Etienne clash was close to full strength.
“We have seen what we are capable of doing and had some highlights which allowed us to score to win the match,” the coach added.
Galthieé said his side’s fatigue was to blame for the Scots storming back and almost snatching victory near the end.
“We were also taken aback at the start of the match but the second half gave us a glimpse how we can be successful.”
France play another warm-up test against Fiji in Nantes on Saturday and then meet Australia in Paris on August 27th.
Their first game at the World Cup is the opening match at the Stade de France against New Zealand on September 8th.
Gatland not impressed
Meanwhile, Warren Gatland hinted there may be repercussions for World Cup selection after Wales surrendered a strong position in slumping to a 19-17 defeat by England at Twickenham.
The hosts had been reduced to 12 men after Owen Farrell’s yellow card was upgraded to a red by the “Bunker” review system at a time when Freddie Steward and Ellis Genge were sat in the sinbin.
Wales led 17-9 but against the odds England scored the next try when Maro Itoje rounded off a maul before George Ford landed a conversion and penalty to seal a come-from-behind victory.
“I’m furious we didn’t win the game, but it answered a few questions for us about certain individuals,” head coach Gatland said.
“The game management in that final quarter wasn’t good enough. We should have been comfortable.
“It was a big moment not taking the kick-off and giving England back a bit of momentum by not clearing our line, allowing them to score from that and get back into the game. That was disappointing.
“We capitulated in terms of our accuracy and with some guys not knowing their roles. For me that was disappointing because we’ve spent a lot of time ensuring there is clarity and everyone knows their roles.
“We gave away some soft penalties where we piggybacked them up the field and gave them those chances. We’ll have learned a lot from that.”
Wales’ inability to close out their first victory at Twickenham since 2015 completed a largely promising double-header against England that began with a solid 20-9 win in Cardiff.
Gatland has one last warm-up game to finalise selection for the World Cup, with South Africa visiting the Principality Stadium two days before he unveils his 33-man squad.
Dangerous Fiji are their opening opponents in France next month and Wales’ boss believes his players are being sufficiently battle-hardened.
“There are still some players we need to find out about and potentially give an opportunity to,” Gatland said.
“You couldn’t ask for better warm-up matches in terms of the physicality we are looking for, with England home and away and then South Africa.
“It’s going to be the same sort of test upfront against South Africa and we need to take the learnings from Twickenham.”
Wales are waiting for fitness updates on Dewi Lake and Taine Plumtree who suffered respective knee and shoulder injuries.
Taine Basham failed an HIA after being struck by a dangerous tackle by England captain Owen Farrell.
