{"id":795528,"date":"2026-10-08T03:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T03:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/795528\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T03:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T03:56:12","slug":"can-late-bloomer-maxime-lucu-be-frances-number-one-no-9-in-nations-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/795528\/","title":{"rendered":"Can late-bloomer Maxime Lucu be France\u2019s number one No.9 in Nations Championship?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Roll the clock back to 21 September 2023. In the 45th minute of a pool game between France<\/a> and Namibia, Johan Deysel made a coruscating head-high hit on superstar scrum-half Antoine Dupont. The Toulousain magician left the field holding the side of his face and a rugby nation audibly held its breath. The match was supposed to be a group-stage cakewalk \u2013 it finished 96-0 to France \u2013 but the profundity of its impact rumbled around the rest of the competition like a distant thunderclap in an echo-chamber.<\/p>\n

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One day later, the full extent of the damage was revealed: a maxillo-zygomatic fracture, or a broken cheekbone to the likes of you and me. It seemed impossible that Dupont could be ready for a quarter-final against the reigning world champions, and the most aggressively physical team on planet rugby in only three weeks\u2019 time. But ready he was \u2013 \u2018Touch\u00e9, mais pas coul\u00e9\u2019 as Dupont himself wrote, referencing a popular naval combat game: \u2018Hit, but not sunk\u2019.<\/p>\n

For a while it looked like he might don a face mask more suited to the melodrama of The Phantom of the Opera\u00a0than a game of international rugby. It was scaled down to one metal plate in his face, a scrum-cap on top of his head and a mere 21 days of recovery, but he was never the same irresistible force out on the field.<\/p>\n

\"AntoineDupont was able to play in France\u2019s RWC23 quarter-final but couldn\u2019t stop South Africa<\/a> from knocking out the hosts (Photo Anne-Christine Poujoulat\/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The magic had gone, and the cooler heads in French rugby rightly criticized the dangers of the early return to action, indirectly poking holes in the over-dependence on one man. While head coach Fabien Galthi\u00e9 was claiming that \u2018if we put a player on the pitch, it\u2019s because we\u2019ve validated his ability to play\u2019, ex-France back-row Olivier Magne was suggesting more soberly that, \u2018there is a level of danger that is significant with an early return, so you have to be vigilant. There\u2019s a problem with the message it sends out to the general public by allowing a player back after such a serious injury.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the event, Magne was closer to the mark than Galthi\u00e9. Dupont played his part in the quarter-final for sure, but the battle was never drawn magnetically into his orb of influence, as so many had been in the past. The master-puppeteer was now just a part of the show; the Olympian hero of French rugby now merely a very talented mortal.<\/p>\n

The outcome of that tournament has left French rugby with a deep feeling of unfinished business. As Dupont\u2019s second-in-command, Maxime Lucu observed after the 29-28 loss to the Springboks: \u2018It was a massive defeat for us. For us, the French people, it\u2019s really stuck with us. It was our World Cup, and they came and stole it off us. It was such a great game.\u2019<\/p>\n

It might have been unthinkable three years ago but it is now the hard reality. Speak it in a whisper: Antoine Dupont is no longer an automatic choice at scrum-half in the French national team.<\/p>\n

Like so many traumatic reverses, that 2023 quarter-final may have done French rugby a power of good in the long run. It has awakened Galthi\u00e9 and his corps of support coaches to the need to not only provide meaningful cover for Dupont\u2019s periods of absence, including the Sevens at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, but examine genuine alternatives to le petit g\u00e9n\u00e9ral in the starting line-up. Since 2023, the alternatives have collectively started more games than the main man: Dupont has run on in 12 matches, Lucu in nine [plus a lengthy replacement outing when Dupont went off injured in only the 26th minute of the 2025 Six Nations<\/a> decider in Dublin]; youthful Rochelais Nolann Le Garrec in six games and Baptiste Serin in two.\u00a0 Two more Baptistes, Couilloud and Jauneau, plus Thibauld Dabagna, have been used as replacements.<\/p>\n

As those stats suggest, the main alternative to Dupont has been Lucu of double European Champions Cup winners Union Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles, but in the process, \u2018alternative\u2019 has graduated to \u2018rival\u2019. That might have been unthinkable three years ago but it is now the hard reality. Speak it in a whisper: Antoine Dupont is no longer an automatic choice at scrum-half in the French national team.<\/p>\n

That reality makes the \u2018protected list\u2019 of 33 premium Top 14<\/a> players on the runway to the 2027 World Cup appear rather ironic, at least as it stands right now.\u00a0 Protected status means the players involved must be given one club weekend off in every four, or two in every eight over the course of the season by their Top 14 clubs. Likewise, they may not play more than nine Tests per season.<\/p>\n

Protected status is designed to provide a layer of insulation against the injury losses which beset France\u2019s last World Cup effort, with giant South African-born lock Paul Willemse and Romain Ntamack, Dupont\u2019s half-back partner at Stade Toulousain, ruled out before the tournament ever started, while prop Cyril Baille and flanker Antony Jelonch both carried injuries into it. All would have been first choices in the strongest France starting XV available at the time.<\/p>\n

\"MaximeLucu\u2019s connection with club half-back partner Mathieu Jalibert plays in his favour, though Jalibert also played at 15 in July with Romain Ntamack at 10 (Photo Yuichi Masuda \u2013 Nations Championship via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The current protected list includes 13 rouges-et-noirs, six Bordelais, three apiece from Section Paloise, RC Toulon<\/a> and Stade Rochelais, two from Racing 92<\/a> and one each from Montpellier, Clermont<\/a> and Olympique Lyonnais. One of the notables excluded from it is Lucu, who was injured at the time the list was drawn up. With all the top men fit and firing, there is no doubt that the Girondins scrum-half should be one of the first assets in French rugby requiring instant protection.<\/p>\n

Lucu will be 34 when the 2027 World Cup in Australia<\/a> starts, but his international career has been an extraordinary story of late-stage development, after winning his first cap for his country at the age of 28. As his attack and skills coach at his club, Irishman Noel McNamara marvelled, \u2018Max Lucu is like Benjamin Button. He seems to be getting better all the time. It\u2019s no happy accident, they [Lucu and his half-back partner Matthieu Jalibert] make the effort to connect. They\u2019ve been together for quite a long time. There\u2019s a really nice symbiosis between the two. A lot of it is work, it\u2019s connecting off the pitch, it\u2019s preparation and it\u2019s understanding what they see.\u2019 Lucu may be getting older, but he provides a perfect foil for his playmaking mate at No.10, and his enthusiasm for\u00a0the game is that of a man 10 years younger.<\/p>\n

When he was invited to improve his defensive work-rate in the twilight of his playing career, Lucu obliged where many others might have passed. The modern coaching buzzwords of \u2018rapid recovery\u2019 and \u2018repeat involvements\u2019 are everything, nowhere more so than on the defensive side of the ball. Leicester<\/a> Tigers and England<\/a> scrum-half Jack Van Poortvliet has gone on the record to say that he models his defensive contribution on the work done by Lucu. \u201cThe difference he makes for his team in defence is ridiculous,\u201d said Van Poortvliet in wide-eyed admiration.<\/p>\n

There remains a strong case to start the club combination from the current European Cup champions in the halves with the indomitable Ramos at 15. Dupont could function as a \u2018super-sub\u2019 able to cover both nine and 10 off the bench.<\/p>\n

Les Bleus already have a Nations Championship<\/a> fixture against the mighty Springboks cemented in on 14 November, and if they finish on top of the northern heap at the end of six rounds, they could find themselves playing the same opponents for the second time in two weeks in a final at Twickenham\u2019s Old Cabbage Patch on the 29th. There is a strong case for club cohesion in the pivotal positions of the backline given the condensed format of the schedule.<\/p>\n

Over the first three rounds of the Nations Championship in July, with both Dupont and his club-mate Thomas Ramos withdrawn from the initial stages of the competition, Fabien Galthi\u00e9 opted for a spinal axis of Lucu-Jalibert in the halves with Racing-man Max Spring at full-back. For the next two matches against Australia and Japan<\/a> he changed it up, with Jalibert moving to the back and Romain Ntamack selected to partner Lucu.<\/p>\n

The true pecking order at nine, 10 and 15 in the mind of the France supremo still looks and feels uncertain, but there remains a strong case to start the club combination from the current European Cup champions in the halves with the indomitable Ramos at 15. Dupont could function as a \u2018super-sub\u2019 able to cover both nine and 10 off the bench, supercharging those critical last 20 minutes versus the Bokke.<\/p>\n

The importance of Lucu to the French cause was underlined by his recent cameo versus high-flying Lyon<\/a> OU, in which he was showing 22-year old Hugo Reus around the dark closets and corridors of Top 14 rugby. Lucu only spent 46 minutes on the field but his vision of the game dominated proceedings:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/t.co\/RAMDwQsDlQ<\/p>\n

\u2014 William Bishop (@RPvids1994) October 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/t.co\/nzePqsz3KC<\/p>\n

\u2014 William Bishop (@RPvids1994) October 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Even when play is sitting on the UBB 22, Lucu is playing \u2018heads-up\u2019 and looking for the big momentum-changer, either via a quick tapped penalty or a massive 50\/22 lineout turnover off his left boot.<\/p>\n

It was not the only time when Lucu showcased his ability to generate prodigious length and accuracy off either foot in the kicking game:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/t.co\/6koIxZ3Jr2<\/p>\n

\u2014 William Bishop (@RPvids1994) October 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/t.co\/VEKQ1kjHIf<\/p>\n

\u2014 William Bishop (@RPvids1994) October 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Deftness of touch off the boot was hardly a problem either:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/t.co\/bOpa5qxY1U<\/p>\n

\u2014 William Bishop (@RPvids1994) October 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

An exquisitely-weighted chip off the left foot again breathes new life into the claret-and-blue attack, and the home side promptly scored a try off the ensuing 5m scrum.<\/p>\n

Arguably France lost a home World Cup because they were too dependent on one man for their success. As stratospherically good as he may be, even players of demi-god status like Dupont need not only adequate replacements, but fierce rivals for their position in the starting XV. That rivalry has now materialized in the shape of late-bloomer Lucu, and it would be no great surprise to see rugby\u2019s answer to Benjamin Button turn back the hands of time one more time in the Nations Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roll the clock back to 21 September 2023. In the 45th minute of a pool game between France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-795528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}