Nice (AFP)

He has a new chance. Six months after the sinking in England (44-8) and his sidelining of the XV of France, opener Camille Lopez, again on Saturday against Scotland, must score points in preparation for the world.

"You've talked a lot about Lopez, but the facts showed that even though he had some pretty tricky moments during the tournament, it was not a big deal." To the journalists who had buried the Clermontois too quickly, the coach Jacques Brunel showed Thursday in Nice, preferring to Romain Ntamack and Anthony Belleau, that they had been wrong.

Attention, a place in the starting XV Saturday does not guarantee the Basque another in the plane for Japan (September 20-November 2), 4 years after missing the train to England. Lopez knows it better than anyone. "We're not there yet but it's always better to be in this group."

- "Informed" -

Not frankly, Brunel's words about him justify this caution. "We have chosen it knowingly, we will try to put it in the best conditions, then, the preparation matches (again Scotland, August 24, then Italy on the 30th) will decide the order of things. "warned the Gersois.

In other words, Lopez (30, 22 caps) plays big in this month of August. "It is not because I hold today that it is an end in itself," he says, lucid. "These are friendlies, everyone will have playing time and after the staff will make their choices."

The stakes are high, a first World Cup after a career in blue with high but mostly low. If Philippe Saint-André promoted the holder end 2014, he separated at the end of the Six Nations Tournament next, irritated by a package decided by Clermont, and does not retain the World Cup. Guy Novès ignores it first before giving it a chance at the end of 2016, but Lopez misses the victory drop against Australia. Brunel thinks he is "the best in France" but ousted him after Twickenham.

In London, Lopez, like his companion at the hinge Morgan Parra, paid for the score, but also their statements where they implicitly criticize the staff.

- "He bounced back well" -

Parra will never be called again. Lopez, though, but that's not a good memory either: replacing Ntamack in Italy, he experienced his entry at the last minute as a humiliation, leaving the lawn without performing the lap of honor. "It must have hurt him a bit, but he has reacted very well, well bounced, the proof is there," his team mate Wesley Fofana puts it in perspective.

The child of Mauléon ended up with the ASM during a good end of the season, failing only in the final against Toulouse (24-18). A match in which Lopez made a mistake, a candle out of camp badly inspired that will lead to the second test Toulouse. An action that Fabien Galthié, appointed deputy Brunel before succeeding after Japan, has strongly criticized on France Télévisions.

But Lopez resists everything. Retained June 18 in the list of 31 presumed holders for Japan, it will be Saturday at the same time leader and striker of the Blues. "At the announcement of this group, I was happy to be part of it, I will give everything to stay the max of time."

"I feel very well in his role, as in Clermont," said Wesley Fofana, who sees him hold the same place in Japan. "He is the conductor, he knows everything by heart, (...) reads the game very well and understood very well where the staff wanted to go," added the center. Between Lopez and the XV of France, it is a soap opera with twists and turns.

© 2019 AFP