Ntamack returns for Toulouse to face France rival Jalibert / Photo: ROMAIN PERROCHEAU - AFP/File
Ntamack returns for Toulouse to face France rival Jalibert
France hooker Peato Mauvaka said on Friday his Toulouse and Test team-mate Romain Ntamack will want to prove his worth against Matthieu Jalibert this weekend when the two fly-halves come face to face in a titanic French Top 14 tussle in Bordeaux.
Ntamack has been out of action since December through injury and missed the entire Six Nations.
A possible return in February was delayed due to a hamstring issue but the 26-year-old comes back into the Toulouse line-up against Bordeaux-Begles on Sunday when he is expected to face the man who took his France jersey.
Jalibert, 27, was an eye-catching stand-in, playing some dazzling rugby in four of France's five games on their way to the Six Nations title.
Head coach Fabien Galthie said this week both have a legitimate claim to the jersey and Mauvaka believes the competition between the two 10s is a positive.
"For sure they both have their strengths, they bring the best out of each other," he told reporters.
"Romain, who is coming back from injury, he's going to want to show that he's still about.
"And all the guys around him we're going to help him so he feels good during the match."
Defending champions Toulouse, who will be without a number of their Six Nations stars including Antoine Dupont and Thomas Ramos, head the Top 14 table going into round 19, with a 12-point cushion to second-placed Pau.
Bordeaux-Begles, beaten 39-33 in last year's final, lie fifth, just five points off second-place which guarantees automatic passage to the semi-finals.
Jalibert's fellow France internationals Yoram Moefana, Temo Matiu, Maxime Lamothe and Maxime Lucu will also be in the Bordeaux-Begles set-up.
However, winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey, whose nine tries in the tournament saw him nominated Friday as one of the candidates for Player of the Six Nations, is sitting out the Toulouse duel.
C.López--ECdLR
