Tokyo (AFP)

For him to play: favorite Camille Lopez, the young opener Romain Ntamack will, at age 20 and for his ninth selection, at the controls of the XV of France for his entry into the World Cup Saturday in Tokyo against Argentina.

"Frankly, I do not think about it, nor do I wake up every morning and tell myself that I have to be a starter at all costs," he said last week. Junior World Champion in 2018, international in February, French Champion in June and World Cup holder in September: at the end of his first full professional season, the Toulouse prodigy will climb a new step in his dazzling ascent.

The son of Emile Ntamack, icon of the 1990s, is no longer seen as a hope but as a frame. "He is a kid for you but for us, for me who saw him grow up, he is not his age," said his teammate Toulouse Yoann Huget, 12 years his senior, praising his "maturity".

"He does not have the sense of pressure (...) A kid who has such a hold on a group at that age is rare, his age has nothing to do with his skills" , continues the winger, taulier des Bleus (32 years old, 59 sel.).

Skills in the animation and footwork experienced in the six-nation tournament, when Ntamack had taken the place of Lopez after the correction suffered in England (44-8). At the opening therefore, while his club coach Ugo Mola uses the majority in the center.

- "Adaptability" -

"He played half (opening) with us several times (5), he showed that he was able to have a very good level on this post, even if he does not play club", swept coach Jacques Brunel on Thursday. Huget puts forward the "very important adaptation faculty" of Ntamack. "Put it in the middle or in 10, it will play the same way."

Brunel has therefore preferred to bet the youth rather than the experience by putting on the bench Lopez, whose low success in shooting against Scotland (32-3) mid-August in Nice (3/6) has no doubt was crippling. Ntamack, he had missed Edinburgh one week later (17-14) playing a dangerous ball hand but had secured against the poles (5/6) against Italy (47-19) in late August. "He showed that this role (scorer) did not scare him," confirmed Brunel.

While the vagueness reigned since the announcement in mid-June of the initial list for the World Cup, the end of tournament hierarchy is restored. And the less good shot of Ntamack at the end of the season, spent on the bench of Toulouse, forgotten.

- "An exceptional season" -

"It is normal that he has accused the blow," said Huget. "After the tournament, even for us, with the experience, it's difficult to get back into the Top 14 and the European Cup, and I think he's managed his season pretty well."

And then, the XV of France is no longer a paradox, like starting a World Cup with an opener who has spent only 5 minutes on the field in the final of the championship against Clermont (24-18). "For a kid of 18-20 years, he still made an exceptional season, the boy," relativizes Huget. "Of course we would like to see him more on the field but it was only his second season at this level, so stay cool, protect him."

Cited in Toulouse, Ntamack is "ready for a moment," said Maxime Médard, another veteran back of Toulouse and the Blues, impressed by the "calm" and "serenity" of the newcomer. The Argentineans, experts in the art of raising the temperature of the opponent, are the ideal test to verify it.

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