France’s preparations for their Autumn Nations Cup clash with Scotland suffered a blow after star fly-half Romain Ntamack was ruled out of the game through injury.
Ntamack shone during the recent Guinness Six Nations – forming a formidable half-back partnership with Antoine Dupont, scoring a Championship-high 57 points across the five games and earning a nomination for Player of the Championship (eventually won by Dupont).
But the French Rugby Federation revealed in a statement on Monday that the 21-year-old was out of the weekend’s contest due to an unspecified injury.
Les Bleus were scheduled to get their Autumn Nations Cup campaign underway against Fiji in Round 1 but an outbreak of Covid-19 within the Fijian camp caused the clash to be cancelled.
That means Sunday’s trip to BT Murrayfield to face a Scotland side that beat Italy 28-17 in their opener will be France’s first of the new tournament and could be decisive in deciding the outcome of Group B.
They will have to make do without talisman Ntamack, meaning Matthieu Jalibert may well don the No.10 jersey from the off, while uncapped Toulon fly-half Louis Carbonel has also been called into the squad as cover.
Carbonel, also 21, is a prodigious talent himself – having starred as France won back to back World Rugby Under-20 Championships in 2018 and 2019 – and could be in line to earn his first senior cap in Edinburgh.
