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Romain Ntamack poised to make return from World Cup-ending injury
By Josh Raisey
France fly-half Romain Ntamack is set to make his return this weekend from the ACL injury that ruled him out of the World Cup last year.
Toulouse host Pau on Saturday in the Top 14, and various French outlets have reported the response from both defence coach Laurent Thuéry and his colleague Clement Poitrenaud when asked about the 24-year-old's return.
Saturday will be the first time the fly-half pulls on a Toulouse jersey since the Top 14 final against La Rochelle last year, where he produced a sensational solo try to win the match.
“Romain Ntamack will be in the group this weekend for the reception of the Paloise Section," Thuéry said, as reported by French outlet Sud Radio Rugby (translated by Google).
"All signals are green. Honestly, he is very good, he sends very positive signals. It was a problem-free rehabilitation."
Ntamack picked up the injury in a World Cup warm-up match against Scotland just weeks before a home World Cup. He has had to sit on the sidelines as Les Bleus crashed out of the tournament in the quarter-finals, followed by a patchy Guinness Six Nations this year.
Though he is unlikely to feature for an extensive stretch of time against Pau at the Stade Ernest-Wallon, he will help ease the injury burden in the Toulouse back line at the moment with Thomas Ramos and Ange Capuozzo both unavailable.
Ntamack will be able to reform his iconic partnership with scrum-half Antoine Dupont as well, who returned last week to the 15-player format after a hugely successful dalliance in sevens as he prepares for the Paris Olympic Games.
It may be a while away before Ntamack makes his first start for Toulouse, but he is likely to have a say in the rest of their season, with Racing 92 visiting next weekend in the round of 16 in the Investec Champions Cup.
Toulouse are currently in second place in the Top 14, only three points behind leaders Stade Francais with seven games remaining in the regular season.
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Latest Comments
There's no easy fix here. From a geography standpoint, South Africa is kind of on an island alone in the rugby world, much like Argentina.
They don't have enough talent to have a top tier domestic league of their own, and it won't support the union financially. Best case you could hope for would be the five extant franchises (including Cheetahs) and perhaps a team from Namimbia. Gives you a 6 team league, that's not enough. Plus again, it's just not financially sustainable either.
At the same time, it's not really great for them to be involved in either the European or the Pacific rugby set up. That said, as bad as the travel is, at least Europe makes more sense from a time zone perspective. I still think it's the least bad option. Also has done wonders for the URC.
I don't think though, that it makes very much sense to have 4 teams from the URC excluded from European qualification. Not to mention, being able to compete in the Champions Cup was a big draw for the South African clubs anyway.
So yeah, I don't really see a change that makes more sense than the less than ideal situation that already exists.
Go to commentsMoriaty refused to play for wales also he’s injured, France’s is being coy about wales, North in the dark but Sam David and jerad are you joking their not good enough
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