the essential
The opener made his return this Saturday after more than a month of convalescence. If the staff and his teammates were happy to see him on the field, he has not yet found his best level.
There are attitudes that are unmistakable. Gestures of annoyance, balls slipping from the hands, an ill-adjusted kick… If everything is not to be thrown away, Romain Ntamack did not seem completely satisfied with his return match, this Saturday against Perpignan. Away from the field since October 12 following a calf injury contracted against Clermont – we feared the worst at the time, him first – he made his comeback to training on Monday, six days only before resuming in the Top 14. But in this period of tension at the squad level with the absence of international players, it is difficult for the staff to do without more time for this key element.
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Back after six weeks of convalescence, Ntamack had a good start to the game: his kicking game, although unremarkable at the start, turned out to be decisive thanks to a favorable rebound well followed by NTK itself and led to the second try stadist marked by Vergé (8). But overall, his first half may not fully satisfy him, when we know the level of demands he imposes on himself. Like this action which could have cost his team dearly: a little too relaxed to recover a long Catalan kick 10m from his goal, he did not feel Jefferson Lee-Joseph arriving in his back. The Perpignan septist countered the clearance of a nonchalant Ntamack to say the least and it was almost nothing for him to flatten into the in-goal following.
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He will have produced a much better copy when he returns from the locker room (like his team) and Ugo Mola's assistant, David Mélée, said he was very satisfied to be able to count on the return of the international. Still specifying that he was not yet at his best level: “In the first half, he tried to play around him, to bring in the forwards. He commits once, we arrive to score a try… It was his return match, we know that he can be ten times better. He is slowly building his comeback and we hope to quickly find him at his best for the important deadlines that are coming.” And Ntamack's partner at the hinge, Paul Graou, said nothing else: “He is very good physically, he is a very serious person, he worked during his convalescence period, he is back in more than good shape and I hope he will give us some big matches.”
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In the Stade ranks, we therefore retain the positive of the great return of one of Walloon's favorites. Like his shift for Barassi which brings Graou's essay to the start of the second act (47). Against the poles too, Ntamack will have held the house (a failure, 11 points) but it is clear that the fly half of the “red and black” will be keen to show more, from next week, on the field of Racing.
