Replacing last weekend against Japan, fly-half Matthieu Jalibert will come off the scoresheet against New Zealand this week. If he first pays the price of a tactical adjustment on the bench, his expected downgrade is up to his ambitions. And the person concerned would experience it badly.
61st minute of the France-Japan match: Matthieu Jalibert, who entered ten minutes earlier, participates in a restart, but sees his pass intercepted by his club teammate, Tevita Tatafu, who goes to score the second try for the Japanese. All eyes in the audience then turn towards him.
How to analyze this error? Lean towards coach Fabien Galthié and confirm his idea that Thomas Ramos provides more guarantees and reliability? Or have a lucid thought for the player and tell yourself that what he has been going through for weeks puts him in bad conditions no matter what? This is such a delicate time for Jalibert. And this even extends to the training of the Blues in Marcoussis.
As is customary, this Wednesday morning, the fifteenth of France ends its “ball in play” session, the traditional opposition, with an end-of-match scenario. Just to anticipate what could happen next weekend. On the giant screen, the situation is simple: 77 minutes and thirty seconds of play, France leads 21 to 20 and the return is for New Zealand, represented by the substitutes and other members of the 42, who face the holders.
After the reception and a few fixing points, the Blues emerge and the opposition begins the movements. Until this penalty whistled by the game director, the former referee Jérôme Garcès, fifty meters away, shifted to the right, in favor of the “virtual” All Blacks. Which, with one minute to go, logically choose to try it.
He was warned
Matthieu Jalibert, who no longer works with the incumbents, comes forward and, in the current context and his heavy shoulders… misses it. At the time of scoring, the person concerned, replacing last Saturday, knows that this time, he will not even be in the group of 23 which will face the All Blacks.
Worse, the same evening, he left Marcoussis with the thirteen other “released” on the list. The staff spares him the snub of playing the accompanist. It remains to be seen whether it is for his own good or that of the team… Here he is back home, in Bordeaux, in the fall of 2024 where the tear in Romain Ntamack's calf combined with his XXL start to the season nevertheless gave some hope yet another new start in blue. It won't happen.
However, the person concerned was warned. At the start of the season, Fabien Galthié made no secret of his intentions. At fly-half and full-back, the Ntamack-Ramos-Barré trio leaves him no room in the group, he the holder of the last World Cup and the last VI Nations Tournament. Jalibert was asked to train hard, which he did.
In the wake of a Union Bordeaux-Bègles all fired up, he had some good matches, six victories for a single defeat in seven contested days, 69 points including three tries, hoping to reverse an unfavorable trend. But after Ntamack's injury, the information of the choice of Ramos to occupy the position of number one of the number ten announced a difficult stay at Marcoussis for the Bordeaux player.
Impasse with the XV of France
The cautious phone call from this same Ramos, to confirm his preference for the full-back position, even if he was loyal, could not fully comfort Jalibert. The Toulousain has for him, beyond his talent, his complicity with captain Antoine Dupont. And the latter, who excels in everything he does, the possibility of also playing ten, as observers were able to see in the maneuver at Marcoussis, associated with Nolann Le Garrec. Which leaves the staff plenty of time to only keep the Ile-de-France scrum-half on the bench, with Emilien Gailleton, when they want to line up six replacement forwards.
The cup would be full for Jalibert, an ambitious player with character, who in these conditions would not see himself traveling back and forth to Marcoussis in the role of a sparring partner. Like other players you might say. But to realize that the coach does not trust him, and that the current situation is also experienced in the absence of Romain Ntamack (imagine his return…) makes him think that his future with the fifteen of France rushes into a dead end. At 26 years old (he got them last Wednesday in the middle of a rally), Matthieu Jalibert knows that his history with the Blues is written in dotted lines…
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