New evidence of internal feud could derail success of France and Toulouse
Many people would have been left gobsmacked by the audacity of Toulouse fullback Thomas Ramos to attempt his football-style pass across the try line to teammate Romain Ntamack on Saturday, and rightly so.
This was a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final after all against the Sharks, so the stakes could not have been much higher. But some footage has emerged since then to suggest that this move by the France fullback to his compatriot was quite sinister.
This was not the first time that Ramos has thrown Ntamack into a situation he probably would not have wanted to be in. Be it with flicked passes or even with through the legs passes, the 27-year-old seems to have quite a predilection for hospital passes like that.
Now, the easy explanation is that Ramos has both the skill to pull off passes like that and the confidence in his fly-half to be able to get his side out of trouble. However, it could also suggest a rift between the pair, and that Ramos spends every moment on a rugby pitch trying to manufacture hospital passes to Ntamack. This could have huge ramifications for both Toulouse’s Champions Cup hopes and also France’s World Cup hopes.
Ntamack was able to handle Ramos’ sabotage attempts adroitly against the Sharks, but, as history suggests, the fullback will not give up so easily, and will continue to search for new and dangerous ways to catch his teammate out.
Perhaps it will be against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in the semi-final where Ramos finally produces the coup de grace, but Ntamack is surely wise to his tricks by now. He may even be waiting until the World Cup to unleash the mother of all passes to Ntamack with the All Blacks’ or South Africa’s back row charging at him.
Take a look at Ramos’ history of strange passes to Ntamack:
Thomas Ramos goal line love story with Ntamack
by u/wallenstius in rugbyunion
