Six Nations news: Matthieu Jalibert or Romain Ntamack – where do France go now?

France have gotten off to a blinding start to this year’s Six Nations, kicking their campaign off with bonus point wins against Ireland and Wales.

Their success has come from an electric attack, reliant on a kicking game used to cause chaos.

When the defence is broken, the backs, and indeed the forwards at times, turn on the afterburners and attack with lightning-fast hand speed and super offloads.

Star scrum-half Antoine Dupont is often the instigator of these attacks, whether it be through his dynamic box kicking or later on in phases when he can act as a second fly-half.

Individually, he is brilliant, but all good nines need their ten.

For exclusive stories and all the detailed rugby news you need, subscribe to The Rugby Paper website, digital edition, or newspaper from as little as 14p a day.

Jalibert gets off to a flyer

Matthieu Jalibert has begun this campaign in fine form, scoring two tries in the opening two games of the championship.

Amazingly, these were his first international tries since 2023.

But it’s not just the tries which have been impressive. In tandem with Dupont, he has been brilliant creatively, specifically with his kicking game.

Jalibert has a laser-accurate kick, which caused plenty of problems for Wales at the weekend, where the France fly-half bagged two cross-field kick assists.

The Bordeaux playmaker was given the nod at 10 for the tournament ahead of Thomas Ramos, who remained at full back.

Can Ntamack regain the 10 shirt?

But Jalibert only got the chance to start at 10 due to French teammate Romain Ntamack being unavailable.

Toulouse‘s fly-half had suffered a kidney injury ahead of the tournament, which was reported to keep him out until at least the third round.

This means Ntamack may be available for selection either against Italy, or perhaps later.

But will he retake the 10 shirt?

Ntamack has often been the preferred starter under head coach Fabien Galthié, largely due to his chemistry with captain Dupont, playing alongside him at Toulouse.

Ntamack is one of the best with his hands. His passing is superb; combine that with his utter confidence to play out of his hands anywhere on the pitch, and he is often one of the toughest players to compete against.

Galthié faces a tough decision

Both have a similar amount of France caps, 37 for Jalibert and 43 for Ntamack, but Romain has scored far more points.

Based on that information, you could suggest that Ntamack could just come back in and regain the kicking tee, but with Ramos being almost faultless at the posts, there is no point.

Galthié certainly has a tough decision to make.

Ntamack is one of the most creative fly halves in the world, with hand speed and raw pace to boot.

Added with his undeniably strong chemistry with Dupont and surely he would walk straight back into the team.

But Jalibert has been electric, certainly the best fly-half of the tournament so far.

Sharp and faultless

He’s been consistently sharp and faultless with his kicking game (perhaps better than Ntamack).

Why would he then change a formula that has bagged France 90 points in two games?

It is anyone’s guess as to who takes the reins. Perhaps a compromise will be found that puts Jalibert in the centre where he has played previously.

Either way, it’s a great problem to have that only England comes close to, where George Ford is keeping Marcus and Fin Smith out of the starting 15.

Regardless of who is picked moving forward, there is no doubt that the French will still have the scariest attack of all the teams involved in the tournament and will cause real problems for Italy this Sunday.

READ MORE: Six Nations news: Henry Pollock set for first England start against Ireland