France Fiji rugby Championship Galthié Ntamack injury, Digi Mart USA News (Lyon, France): France beat Fiji 54-17 on Saturday in Lyon, keeping its lead at the top of the Northern Hemisphere standings in the Championship of Nations. The win came at a high cost, with fly-half Romain Ntamack suffering a serious left shoulder injury that rules him out for the rest of the competition.
Coach Fabien Galthié confirmed the injury to TF1 after the match. “It hurts me so much for him.
Rugby is hard. We won’t have him for the rest of the competition.
It’s a fairly serious shoulder injury.”
France earned a bonus-point win and sits atop the Northern Hemisphere table with 17 points after the fourth round. Galthié acknowledged the team’s errors.
“There were many handling errors. It was a return-to-play match.
It’s a good preparation match for six days from now. We have 17 points, we have constraints and we have to deal with them.
Two rounds remain against two strong opponents.”
Attention now turns to a major clash with South Africa on Friday, November 13, at the Stade de France. Galthié faces a dilemma at fly-half alongside Antoine Dupont.
Matthieu Jalibert is sidelined with a quadriceps injury and will not be fit for the late-November finals weekend, while Thomas Ramos is also unavailable with a thigh injury.
Maxime Lucu, who filled in for an hour against Fiji, may start against the double world champions. Galthié said he would name his team on Wednesday.
“We have a France team without its number 1, number 2, number 3 and number 4. Maxime (Lucu) is a scrum-half.
We will try to find a solution for Friday. Our number 10 will be well supported.” France has struggled against the Springboks in recent years, making the selection question significant.
