Rugby Union – Six Nations Tournament: between Toulouse and the Blues, the former Catalan, Melvyn Jaminet, discovers the competition
Friday, Fabien Galthiéra reveals his composition for the first match of the Six Nations Tournament, Sunday in Italy. The former Catalan, Melvyn Jaminet, is on the list called up to prepare for the meeting. But at fullback, competition is fierce with club partner Thomas Ramos.
Jaminet or Ramos? The question will be one of the main questions in the composition of the XV of France which will be revealed on Friday. This is one of the major choices that Fabien Galthié, the coach of the Blues, will have to make before the first match of the Six Nations Tournament in Rome, Italy. A year ago, when attacking the 2022 European campaign, which had ended in a Grand Slam, the question did not even arise: Melvyn Jaminet, the back of USAP, was the indisputable holder of the post. His competitor, he did not even have his guaranteed place in the team.
Yes, but since then things have changed quite a bit. Transferred to Toulouse this summer, Jaminet chose to join a club capable of winning titles, with the risk, assumed, of having to face much stronger competition. A situation that he did not really know at the USAP as his emergence was rapid.
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From the start of the season, the former Catalan showed that he had adapted perfectly. Substitute in the first match against Bordeaux, he entered 15 half an hour from the end of the match, after the injury of Romain Ntamack and the repositioning of Thomas Ramos at the opening. A pattern that lasted until the 7e day, in Brive, on October 15. That day, Jaminet holder, came out injured in the ankle. An injury that kept him away from the field for more than two months and above all deprived of the three test matches for the France team in the fall.
During the test matches, Ramos an assured
Against Australia, South Africa and Japan, it was therefore Thomas Ramos who recovered the number 15 of the Blues that Jaminet had been squatting almost exclusively since he joined the France team in 2021 and his first call-up. . His 2022 Tournament, during would have been a major player in the Grand Slam, had finished establishing him as the essential holder at the back.
His engagement with Toulouse and therefore his early departure from USAP, when he still had one year left on his contract, was a continuation of these performances, even if he did not make things easier by signing in a club where its main competitor also plays in the France team.
His absence, in the fall, for the last three games of the Blues, allowed Fabien Galthié and his assistants to try something else. And Ramos proved that he could both be effective on foot, but also play perfectly in a very Toulouse team.
The Blues with Ramos are not the same as the Blues with Jaminet. They are not better, but different. Where Jaminet was perfect, with his XXL boost, for dispossession, hitherto very dear to the staff, Ramos still has quality to revive. And as, in defense, they are practically at the same level, it is therefore well according to the game that the staff will want to propose that the decision will be taken.
“Melvyn Jaminet is the longest and highest kicker on the international circuit. It’s like that. When we have him, we know what we have and what he can bring to the XV of France, explained the coach a few days ago at Midi Olympique. Thomas Ramos, he has other qualities, especially in the animation of the game, where he is very complicit with Romain Ntamack and Matthieu Jalibert. He is a bit like a second number 10, in the conduct of the game. In the air, he also fights a lot, wins his duels…”
his return from injury Since then, Jaminet has regained a starting position with Toulouse. Notably, he provided Ramos with a five-week suspension for touching Sale Shark’s scrum-half’s eyes in the European Cup in December. Ideal for finding the rhythm without too much pressure. But as of Sunday, Ramos is qualified again. It may lack a bit of rhythm. Not Jaminet. It is also one of the elements of the equation of which only the staff of the XV of France has the answer.