One man’s misfortune is sometimes another’s good luck. The brutal removal of Uini Atonio, taken to hospital after a cardiac incident and forced to end his career, created an immediate hole on the right-hand side of the French scrum. 

Or an “opportunity” – with all the respect we have for the La Rochelle tighthead – for those who were waiting in the shadows and now find themselves, sometimes in spite of themselves, thrust into the light. Fabien Galthié has therefore chosen to call up Georges-Henri Colombe as reinforcement to prepare for the first match against Ireland. Even if he is not on the team sheet, the decision to bring him into the squad looks logical given the Stade Toulousain prop’s last few months and his unusual profile, close to Atonio’s.

Guidance and confidence regained

Having gone through La Rochelle, where injuries and the ups and downs of the game held him back, Colombe has found a genuine new breath of air in Toulouse. He arrived to relaunch himself and benefited from a coaching set-up that, it seems, has given him back all his confidence. “Hugo Mola insisted at length on the day-to-day work“, Colombe said in a press conference in recent weeks. 

The Toulouse staff have managed to temper his excesses, correct a few habits and encourage him not to give in – above all – to discouragement. It is a message the player has not hidden in public. That momentum has translated into renewed consistency in his outings and a more assertive presence on the pitch. The proof came ten days or so ago with his powerhouse try against a Pau side who played the part of skittles on that particular passage of play.

The step up to the top level

In rugby terms, Colombe has shown in recent weeks an interesting combination of static power and ball-carrying ability when he is called upon. At a time when the French scrum has to withstand the English and Irish assaults – its main threats – his ability to stabilise the right-hand side and offer options at the set piece is far from a negligible asset. In the same mould as a certain Atonio…

The most nitpicking observers will point out, however, that his international game time has always remained limited, the player having found it a little difficult to string performances together at the highest level. The step up to the very top will therefore depend on his consistency and his capacity to absorb the repetition of the workload.

Beyond the technical side, it is the “political” moment (of a man in form) and the human one that carry weight. The France staff have to manage the emotion around Atonio’s departure while preparing a competitive squad for the Championship and that already decisive match against Ireland. But Colombe was clearly not in good enough shape to be on the team sheet on Thursday night against Ireland, at the Stade de France.

Colombe nonetheless comes into this Championship with a card to play – still young, out for revenge, and toughened up by Toulouse’s demands – but also with the need to prove that his physical resilience is not a fluke. His first minutes in the blue jersey in this edition, if he is granted them (we think he will be!), will be examined under a microscope.

So Colombe is not merely a replacement of circumstance. If the prop who came through Racing 92 confirms the progress glimpsed so far, he could even establish himself as a reference point in his position; he has the potential. And besides, rugby, brutal as it can be on so many levels, loves these rebirths. His starts now.