Arthur Mathiron

Arthur Mathiron came on in the 73rd minute of the 2023 Under-20 World Championship final at Athlone Stadium, replacing Paul Costes. France beat Ireland. He was twenty and a world champion, and he had not yet played a professional match.

He plays wing and centre for Lyon, is 1.82m and 92kg, and was born in Chalon-sur-Saône on 19 May 2003.

He started at seven with ASRC Chalon and stayed in the town for ten years, moving on to the Rugby Tango Chalonnais, before three years at the Dijon pôle espoirs.

Lyon took him into their espoirs side in 2021. Two seasons there brought selection for France at sevens and at Under-20 level, and with it the 2023 junior Six Nations and the world championship in South Africa.

He signed his first professional contract on the back of that title, and Lyon loaned him straight to Nevers. The start there was mixed. Moving him to the wing fixed it: twelve tries in twenty-four matches, a nomination as the season’s best left wing, and a place in the Pro D2 team of the season.

Lyon renewed the loan for 2024-25 and he played another full campaign, twenty-four matches and eight tries. He came back to Lyon for this season.

He has stayed close to the players he won the title with, among them Costes, Léo Drouet and Théo Attissogbe.

Forty-eight Pro D2 matches and twenty tries before his first real season in the Top 14 is a better preparation than most junior world champions get, and considerably better than sitting on a bench for two years would have been. The medal counts for nothing now. The two seasons at Nevers might count for a great deal.