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Cian Tracey on Jalibert: "He's been thrown in the deep end"

Cian Tracey joined Nathan Murphy for the Saturday Panel on Off the Ball to preview the opening we...



Cian Tracey on Jalibert: "...
Other Sports

Cian Tracey on Jalibert: "He's been thrown in the deep end"

Cian Tracey joined Nathan Murphy for the Saturday Panel on Off the Ball to preview the opening weekend of the 2018 6 Nations Championship. 

French rugby is going through a tumultuous period at the moment with Jacques Brunel brought in to replace Guyes Noves - who was sacked in December. 

Brunel, the former Italy coach, has picked a young, inexperienced squad for this 6 Nations Championship and Tracey believes there will be a lot of pressure on their new out-half. 

Speaking about Matthieu Jalibert, he told Nathan: "It's going to be interesting - he wouldn't be the biggest kicking out-half. No-one has seen a huge amount of him because he hasn't played a whole pile. I think to put it into context, it's the deep end he has been thrown in here. 

"To harp back to the under-20s once again, it's a fascinating to watch the players and you look at the players making the step up - if people saw the under-20s last night, Ntamack was playing out-half. That guy was ahead of Jalibert for last years under-20s - he's playing for Toulouse now, Jalibert is playing for Bordeaux. 

"Ntamack is obviously still playing under-20s and Jalibert is underage still - he's only played three times for the under-20s and it just goes to show how much he has been thrown into the deep end. 

"In terms of what he's going to do - yeah he's going to run. He's very much in the Joey Carbery mould and, sort of, Jordan Larmour - he's got an unbelievable step," he added.  

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