2023-05-20 15:00:00
Mathieu Bastareaud will therefore retire. The 34-year-old rugby player announced it this Saturday, May 20. He hangs up his crampons after an immense career lasting sixteen years. The former French international ends with a victory in the Challenge Cup (the second European rugby cup) with Racing Club de Toulon, to top off an already well-developed list. The three-quarter center, nicknamed Bastarocket, wore the colors of Stade Français, Toulon and Lyon. He also had 54 caps with the France team
“It will be my last trophy and, next week, it will be my last match at Mayol (against UBB, editor’s note). I gritted my teeth for a year because I said I wanted to finish on my own two legs. It’s done. I said that I wanted to at least win a title by returning to Toulon because I had not returned to the Ehpad and here I am, I have the chance to win one last trophy before bowing out, ”said the three-quarter center with an exceptional physique, converted to the third line in recent years, on the lawn of Dublin.
A well-stocked track record
In one statement, everything is said for this former captain of the XV of France (54 selections), who will have won much more with Toulon – three consecutive European Cups from 2013 to 2015, a Top 14 in 2014 and a European challenge in 2023 – only with the Blues – a grand slam all the same in 2010.
The career of “Bastarocket” in the France team is made up of ups and downs, from his first call-up in 2007 to barely 18 years old, when he had not yet played a pro match and was evolving to Massy in national, to his non-convocation for the 2019 World Cup in Japan via the 2010 grand slam, while the Blues of Dusautoir are trained by Marc Lievremont.
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But the passage in Blue of “Basta” will have been especially marked by the affair of the Auckland nightstand, during a summer tour of the French team in New Zealand and whose diplomatic and media led him to attempt suicide. The player had admitted to having invented an attack against him, a lie reassembled at the top of the two states, leading the Prime Ministers of the two countries to present in turn mutual apologies.
A New York Freelancer
Incarnation of frontal rugby, the “demolition ball” Bastareaud is a powerful player, also capable of scratching the balls in the groupings. This characteristic style will have cost him his place in the France team under the Guy Novès era (2016-2017), who defended a project more focused on movement and speed.
But for lack of results and perhaps encouraged by Bernard Laporte, one of the mentors of the Francilien, who became president of the Federation, Novès ended up giving in and giving him a chance. The cousin of footballer William Gallas seized on it and even offered himself three captaincies with the XV of France in a role of guide for an emerging young generation.
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This fan of manga and Japanese culture will not however make the trip to Japan in 2019, deprived of the World Cup in the final stretch, again sacrificed because of a project of the XV of France focused on mobility.
Las, the former player of Stade Français (2007-2011) and Lyon (2019-2022) offered himself an American freelance by signing for four months in RU New York, seeking “perhaps a little more tranquility, enjoy more of (his) family”.
“I want to try a new experience in an unknown country. I only went there once, to sign my contract. I go there a little to breathe […] But I’m not going to New York on vacation. I am a competitor. I’m going there to be on top and win something, ”he explained to AFP.
His return to France, first in Lyon before a return to Toulon, was complicated by numerous injuries, including an operation on both knees which kept him away from the field for almost a year. Before going for this last trophy, Friday in Ireland, playing more than half time as a center, his first position. Atypical, we tell you.
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