If he unequivocally admits his preference for the full-back position, Thomas Ramos will nonetheless be established for this tour at the opening, his profile sticking in the eyes of the staff more to the imperatives of the team than that of Matthieu Jalibert.
There was, on the one hand, a form of logic. That of starting the opening of the French with a three-quarter line largely stamped XV of France. A choice which would not have surprised anyone, insofar as full-back Léo Barré is having an ordinary start to the season with Stade français, and the the voice of the people favored Matthieu Jalibert as number 10 for the next Tournament. Whether it's supporters, consultants and experts, and even… Thomas Ramos himself. “Today, what I know is that my position is number 15, and that I take great pleasure in it, explained the Stade Toulouse player at the end of October at the microphone of RMC. My goal has always been to try to start at full-back in the French team. I remind you that, if Matthew (Jalibert) doesn't get hurt, he would have finished the Tournament at the front and me at the back. So it was, as the word says, a repair. […] I didn't leave these two matches telling myself that I wanted to settle into the number 10 position in the France team, far from it. The only thing I can say is that in my head I'm number 15.”
Statements largely corroborated by the figures, since in 187 appearances at professional level as a starter, Thomas Ramos wore the number 15 146 times, and only 41 times (or 22%) the opener's costume. And yet, it is to the latter that Fabien Galthié chose to entrust the keys to the blue truck, in the name of a principle that he shares with his football counterpart Didier Deschamps: whatever the club performances, The first valid selection criterion concerns performances in the national team jersey. Hence the choice of the latter to maintain its confidence in the Ramos-Barré duo which concluded the 2024 Tournament so well (before extending its improvement, for the last named, during the summer trip to Argentina) rather than to a Jalibert in difficulty at the start of the last Tournament, further weakened by his quarter-final of the World Cup and the return of Antoine Dupont to whom the keys to the truck were entrusted.
Cohabitation issues
Should we see it, in fact, as a personal quarrel? Far from it even if, in high places, the memory of Jalibert's disapproval of Greg Alldritt (a close friend of Dupont) on May 11 was not necessarily very well received… The underlying reasons for the choice of tricolor staff are in reality more technical, offensive first of all. Indeed, the Bordeaux player's style of play, focused on attacking the advantage line, means that he carries the ball a lot. Hence the difficulties of cohabitation with Thomas Ramos who, on his offshore initiatives, did not have during the last Tournament the room for maneuver that he appreciates with a more “sober” opener like Romain Ntamack. Jalibert never finds himself as comfortable as with a purely ejector number 9 like Maxime Lucu, in which Antoine Dupont finds himself in the exact opposite…
Hence the temptation, for the staff, to capitalize on a Ramos who may be less electric but more at the service of the strategy of the team and its partners. Especially since the tenure of the Toulouse player presents another advantage, in a defensive register. Because if he is not known to be an assassin in defense, Ramos at least has the merit (including at international level) of defending in the position of “real 10”, when the notorious weaknesses of Matthieu Jalibert have regularly forced him to blue staff to move him to the second center position, which the opposing teams have now all adapted to. Not the flashiest of explanations, but certainly not the least important either…
France
