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France head coach Fabien Galthié has suffered yet another injury blow, with Romain Ntamack set to miss their crucial Test against the Springboks.
The Toulouse man suffered a shoulder injury in the 54-17 win against Fiji last night, and is now one of several players to withdraw from the extended 42-man squad to prepare for next Friday’s Test against the world champions.
This will only compound Galthié’s selection woes heading into the Paris showdown, with France already without key men like Emmanuel Meafou, Thomas Ramos and Matthieu Jalibert, among others.
That injury to Ntamack could also see a reshuffle in Les Bleus’ fly-half stocks this weekend. Captain Antoine Dupont and Maxime Lucu both have experience in shifting between the half-back positions at various points, but Lucu was the man who came on at fly-half in the win over Fiji and would be the man in pole position to start there against the Springboks as a result.
Elsewhere, Galthié has called in seven fresh players into his wider squad, in the form of Teddy Thomas, Gaël Fickou, Gaël Dréan, Julien Marchand, Grégoire Arfeuil, Louis Carbonel and Loïc Crédoz.
Bordeaux-Bègles winger Damian Penaud is left out of the extended squad once again, after he was sent back to his club ahead of the Fiji Test. Elsewhere, Léon Darricarrère, Nicolas Depoortere, Théo Forner, Oscar Jegou, Charles Kante Samba and the aforementioned Ntamack also pull out of the group from last week.
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Looking further into the squad, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Théo Attissogbe, Yoram Moefana, Peato Mauvaka and Charles Ollivon retain their spots, while Grégory Alldritt could also come back into the match-day 23 this weekend, after keeping his place in the extended squad.
He was initially retained as a travelling reserve for the Fiji clash.
Forwards: Grégory Alldritt, Hugo Auradou, Paul Boudehent, Esteban Capilla, Guillaume Cramont, Loïc Credoz, Antoine Deliance, Tyler Duguid, Sipili Falatea, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Mickaël Guillard, Thomas Laclayat, Maxime Lamothe, Julien Marchand, Peato Mauvaka, Régis Montagne, Rodrigue Neti, Charles Ollivon, Jefferson Poirot, Thomas Staniforth, Florian Verhaeghe, Cameron Woki
Backs: Grégoire Arfeuil, Théo Attissogbe, Léo Barré, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Louis Carbonel, Axel Desperes, Gaël Dréan, Antoine Dupont, Mathis Ferté, Gaël Fickou, Émilien Gailleton, Kalvin Gourgues, Aaron Grandidier-Nkanang, Paul Graou, Louis Le Brun, Maxime Lucu, Yoram Moefana, Teddy Thomas, Tani Vili