Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack reunite for France national rugby team, Digi Mart USA News (Lyon, France): Longtime Toulouse halfback partners Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack have not played side by side for the French national team in twenty months. Their match against Fiji on Saturday in Lyon will mark their long-awaited reunion.
Since March 8, 2025, when the pair last started together in the halfback pairing for France, the team led by Fabien Galthié has won many matches. After regaining the Six Nations title, the squad also retained its trophy this year with dominant performances.
The pair has not been associated in the national side for exactly 609 days.
The two players have been injured in turn and have not been available at the same time since the March 8, 2025 victory over Ireland, 42-27, in Dublin. Dupont left that match with a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
The Fiji match is the first of the autumn phase of the Nations Championship.
Ahead of the match, Dupont discussed the reunion with the press on Friday, without making it a major issue. “We are used to playing together at Toulouse, and we have played some matches together for the French team too.
It feels like the last match was yesterday. It’s quite easy to find each other,” he said.
“I’m glad we are both here, and we will do our best in this match.”
Dupont also said he was not worried. “We remain the same rugby players.
Above all, the understanding is the same,” he said. “Even if the project is different, we keep the same automatisms, so we try to adapt our game to what the staff proposes and to the partners around us, who are not the same as at Toulouse but whom we also know very well for the most part.”
Dupont, an Olympic sevens champion, said adapting to the situation is part of the role. “That is also our role, knowing how to adapt to the context we are given.” Whether 609 days have passed or not, he said, it changes nothing.
