Ntamack: I'd love to take on All Blacks

SO, Romain Ntamack wants to go to New Zealand in July. New Zealand have already made it clear they want Romain Ntamack to go to New Zealand in July.

- JAMES HARRINGTON

They'd prefer it if Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Damian Penaud, Thibaud Flament, Greg Alldritt, Francois Cros, Manny Meafou, Jean-Baptiste Gros, Thomas Ramos, Yoram Moefana, Gael Fickou, Paul Boudehent, and Uini Atonio would head over with him.

They can't have Antoine Dupont because he got broken against Ireland in the Six Nations. That's history repeating itself, right there, because he missed France's last tour to New Zealand in 2018 after getting broken against Ireland in the preceding Six Nations. Same injury, in fact. Same knee.

Ntamack knows the restrictions he and head coach Fabien Galthie operate under. Per the agreement between the FFR and the LNR, no player from either team involved in the Top 14 final is to be considered for the summer tour.

Ntamack, who made his France debut in 2019, has never been on a July tour. In part because of that agreement, and Toulouse's habit of getting to the Top 14 final-not counting the 2019/20 season, abandoned because of Covid-19, they have missed only one final since Ntamack first pulled on a senior France shirt, in 2022.

But, as he said: "An All Blacks tour-there aren’t 50 of them. It would be extraordinary to play these games. Even if Toulouse is in the final, I would go with great pleasure.

"I've spoken with other players who are not opposed to the idea of going. The League and the Federation [would] need to discuss it but, in my opinion, if a concession can be made it would be for this tour."

That's Ntamack's pitch for a seat on the plane in July. Interestingly, data-obsessed Galthie isn't against the idea. He told journalists at a post-Six Nations debrief: "I don't have a fixed position, but we have defined a player management policy in relation to the existing calendar.