England’s first choice scrum-half Jack Van Poortvliet and France’s first choice fly-half Romain Ntamack have both been ruled out of the Rugby World Cup with injuries sustained on Saturday.
Van Poortvliet will require surgery on an ankle injury that he picked up when playing Wales, while Ntamack ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in France’s victory against Scotland.
Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell replaces Leicester’s Van Poortvliet in the England squad heading to France, while the hosts have yet to confirm their final squad for the tournament yet at this stage.
“It’s really bad luck for Jack, and we send him our very best wishes for a swift and successful recovery,” said England Head Coach Steve Borthwick on the former’s injury.
Borthwick indicated there was always a possibility that changes would have to be made with the rigours of a pre-tournament schedule and World Cup itself, giving dropped players the message to “be ready to come into the squad“, when naming hiss initial 33 players last Monday.
But Mitchell is a player who has not been in camp since 30 June, and with Borthwick having nailed down his initial three scrum-half choices very early on it may take some time for the 26-year-old to get up to speed.
Meanwhile, it blows open the opportunity to start for England’s two other scrum-halves, veterans Ben Youngs and Danny Care, who were expected to be competing with one another behind Van Poortvliet for a spot on the bench, despite having 211 international caps between them.
Superstar France fly-half Ntamack scored his side’s first try on Saturday, and only went off early in the second half with what looked to be just a minor niggle as he walked off unassisted from the field of play.
But as is so often the case with ACL injuries they initially do not appear as severe as they in fact are, and not only will this injury rule the France fly-half out for the World Cup, but he may struggle to make the start of next year’s Six Nations in February 2024.
It hands an opportunity to Matthieu Jalibert to add to his 24 caps and play an integral role in the French team for the World Cup, having been stuck behind Ntamack for a significant portion of his nearly six year international career.
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