Lyon (AFP) – France coach Fabien Galthie admitted on Saturday he has a conundrum to solve as he prepares to face world champions South Africa without a host of top fly-halves.

Issued on: 08/11/2026 - 00:01Modified: 08/11/2026 - 00:10

Romain Ntamack made his long-awaited return to the France team in Saturday's 54-17 Nations Championship victory against Fiji but lasted just over half an hour.

He injured his shoulder as he stretched for the line just before France scored their third of eight tries.

"Romain went off with this injury and we won't have him for the rest of the competition," Galthie told TF1.

"I won't go into the details but I think that's the competition over for him. He has a pretty serious shoulder injury."

With Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Hastoy and Thomas Ramos, a full-back who is an able fly-half, all out injured, Galthie has a headache ahead of next Friday's Springboks clash.

"We have a French team without its first choice (fly-half), without its second choice, without its third choice, without its fourth choice," Galthie said.

Scrum-half Maxime Lucu filled in for Ntamack in the playmaker role once the Toulouse man went off -- a role he has played in before for Bordeaux-Begles.

"We consider Maxime a scrum-half who plays at number 10 for his club," Galthie said.

"That allowed us, with a six-two bench split, to have a good balance.

"We have the youngster from Pau (Axel) Desperes, who is training with us. We'll work on it, we'll try to find a solution at fly-half."

Lucu said he would be willing to play wherever Galthie puts him.

"Me, I play where I'm asked to play, so every time I'm very happy to wear the French jersey," Lucu said.

"Today it was at number 10, so if I'm asked to do it, I'll do it with pleasure.

"There are also many talented fly-halves in this France team."

Galthie was otherwise satisfied with the performance in Lyon, which was somewhat error-prone.

"It's a good result, it's a long time since we've scored so many points against Fiji," said Galthie.

"It's a good preparation match for six days' time," he added about the South Africa clash.

After that, France will face Argentina.

They currently top the northern hemisphere standings by two points from Ireland, putting them in pole position to reach the final in three weeks' time.

"This is a new competition format, we knew that it was important to take the win given the other nations' results," said winger Theo Attissogbe, who scored one of France's tries.

"We took five points, that's the best score possible. So, we're delighted, we'll keep going."

Crowd is 'big advantage'

Fiji remained bottom of the southern hemisphere table after a fourth straight defeat in the competition.

Their South African coach Jake White said Fiji need to improve their maul to be more competitive at this level.

"If you look at the French maul, they score lots and lots of maul tries," he said.

"It is something that we have identified going forward to the World Cup.

"We know that Fiji can play rugby, we know that Fiji can score tries, we know that Fiji are very good with the ball in hand.

"But the things they need to work on is the maul."

As for France's chances next week against his countrymen, White said Les Bleus would always have a shot when playing at home.

"When you see how important that crowd is, and how they help the team, it's a very big advantage," he said.

"I'm sure next week, when they play in the Stade de France against South Africa, it will be even bigger, even more noise.

"It's going to be a good Test match."

© 2026 AFP

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