Arnaud Erbinartegaray

Ten years at a village club in the Basque country, two seasons in Federale 1, and then the Top 14 at 22.

Arnaud Erbinartegaray played ten years for Avenir Barcus, a village club in the Basque country, and made his senior debut there in the Honneur division — the fifth tier of French rugby. He was in the Top 14 four years later.

He plays wing and centre for Bayonne, and is 1.85m and 88kg.

Born in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, he grew up in Moumour until he was eight and then in Barcus. He tried football at Gurmençon first and started rugby at nine, in 2009.

Mauléon took him in 2019 and he played two Fédérale 1 seasons there. Bayonne brought him into their academy in the summer of 2021.

His first professional match came on 5 November 2022 at the Stade Marcel-Michelin, on for Peyo Muscarditz in the 56th minute against Clermont. He scored his first Top 14 try in his next match, at Pau. Six league games and one in the Challenge Cup made up that first season.

The following year he became a regular, playing seventeen Top 14 matches, and in June 2024 he extended to June 2027.

He is a big wing rather than a fast one, and Bayonne have used him at centre often enough that the versatility is real rather than a line on a squad sheet.

He has won nothing. What he has is a route into professional rugby that almost nobody takes any more — no pôle espoirs, no age-grade international caps, no academy at fifteen. Just ten years at a village club and two good seasons in the third division.