Following an undefeated Autumn Nations Series campaign that included a third consecutive win over the All Blacks, the Les Bleus head coach will be buoyed by the news that two of his standout players from years gone by are making their long-awaited return from injury: Toulouse duo Cyril Baille and Romain Ntamack.
Loosehead Cyril Baille (52 caps), who has been out for six months following a serious ankle injury, followed by a fracture of the fibula, is operational again. The 31-year-old took part in training with Toulouse on December 10 and could return to the field very soon in the Champions Cup, before participating in the Top 14.
All this means that the 2022 Grand Slam winner is back in the frame for the 2025 Guinness Men's Six Nations, which begins on the final Friday of next month.
"I want to perform as well as possible from the start," Baille assured the Crunch podcast "If I'm not there, it will be one more goal to work towards [...] I'm going to give it my all with Toulouse to win back my place."
Baille is used to biding his time. His first lengthy spell on the sidelines came in April 2017 when he suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee in the Top 14. That necessitated an eight-month recovery period. "When I came back from the knee, I wasn't supposed to play rugby again," he recalled. "It was tough for 10 days and I managed to get going again afterwards. I wasn't allowed to get up. I was forced to stay in bed for 45 days and wasn't allowed to take the splint off, even to shower. That first injury, I was on my own. I had played for the French team [eight times], I had climbed very high during the season and I had fallen very low."
If there had been barely an injury issue before that, they came thick and fast thereafter. In 2018, he suffered a relapse (four months off). In the middle of the 2020 Championship, he dislocated his right shoulder (several weeks off), but was spared from injuries for the next two years.
In August 2022, he underwent surgery on his adductor, injuring the same area a few months later in a Test against South Africa.
In 2023, during the Rugby World Cup warm-up match on August 12 against Scotland, he suffered a calf injury, but was able to participate in the last three matches of the competition after a six-week break, and then featured in this year's Guinness Men's Six Nations.
Last season ended ended with injury in the Top 14 semi-final - Toulouse went on to lift domestic and European silverware - and kept him off the field for six months.
Ntamack's winning return
Baille's teammate for club and country Romain Ntamack has been equally unlucky with injuries. In fact, the versatile fly-half injured himself in the same World Cup warm-up match as the loosehead in August of last year. A ruptured cruciate ligament in his left knee put him out for eight months, and how France fans felt they missed him in a home tournament that saw them exit in the quarter-finals at the hands of eventual winners South Africa.
Although he missed out on this year's Championship, Ntamack made it back to club duty in time to help Toulouse claim their major trophy double. Then, on the eve of the 2024 Autumn Nations Series, another setback. On October 12, he came off early against Clermont, a calf injury keeping him off the pitch for a month.
Four weeks later, the 25-year-old returned to training and then to the field, registering three wins in three matches. In the first, against Perpignan, he converted four tries and kicked a penalty in a 41-9 victory. For the following match against Racing 92, it was fullback Thomas Ramos who took the lead with three penalties and a conversion. Finally, in the first Champions Cup match against Ulster, Ntamack scored a try on his European return, while Ramos kicked seven conversions.
According to the wishes of national head coach Galthié, who tested this new configuration during the Autumn Nations Series, the two are now poised to share the fly-half position with two other solid contenders: Matthieu Jalibert and even the much-garlanded Antoine Dupont. Of those four contenders, only Jalibert is a non-Toulouse player.
"Leave the third French fly-half, that suits me fine, and let him stay there as long as possible," joked Ugo Mola, the Toulouse coach, on the evening of Toulouse's crushing 61-21 victory against Ulster. "But when you have a Romain Ntamack like that, as luck would have it, you play good rugby."
Despite everything, his return to the blue team for the Guinness Men's Six Nations opener on January 31 against Wales seems to be beyond doubt (fitness permitting). A first international outing in over a year is well overdue for one of the best fly-halves in world rugby. Ntamack has shown in recent weeks that he has come back stronger than ever in the Top 14 and the Champions Cup.
As for Thomas Ramos, so reliable at fly-half during the Autumn Nations Series with his metronomic boot, despite normally playing at fullback, his position on the pitch could evolve depending on the players available and the tactics deployed during a given match.
The fact remains that in the fly-half position, whether first, second or third choice, the French XV now has plenty of options, each one as efficient as the other, which is what Galthié has always wanted.
France v Wales, Friday 31st January 2025, 20:15 GMT.
