Arthur Iturria

He came through the Bayonne academy, left for Clermont at eighteen, won a French championship there, and came back eleven years later.

Arthur Iturria was in the Bayonne pôle espoirs as a teenager. He left for Clermont in 2012, spent eleven years there winning most of what there is to win in France, and came back in June 2023 on a four-year deal.

At 1.98m and 112kg he plays second row or blindside flanker. That dual qualification is the thing about him: tall enough to run a lineout, mobile enough to be picked at six, and he has started Test matches in both positions.

Born in Pau and first coached at US Morlaàs, he signed an academy contract with Clermont in 2012 and his first professional deal in December 2014. He debuted off the bench against La Rochelle on 22 August 2015. He had already won an espoirs championship in 2014 and a Grand Slam with the France Under-20s that same year.

Guy Novès put him in a thirty-man France squad in November 2016 without using him, then capped him against England on 4 February 2017 — the opening match of that Six Nations. He came on in the 72nd minute for his Clermont teammate Sébastien Vahaamahina.

The Top 14 title came four months later, and the Challenge Cup in 2019. He was a losing finalist in Europe in 2017 and in the championship in 2019.

Jacques Brunel started him in the 2018 Six Nations. After the second round against Scotland he broke his nose in an off-field incident and missed the matches against Italy and England, returning only for Wales. Rugbyrama’s readers voted him the best back-rower in the Top 14 the following season.

At the 2019 World Cup he started twice — at lock against Argentina and at flanker against the United States.

What Bayonne have is a set-piece forward who covers two positions properly rather than one and a half, in a squad where Manu Tuilagi and Gareth Anscombe take the headlines. The lineout is his responsibility and the season turns on it.