Axel Guillaud

He had all but signed for Pau when Clermont's director of rugby rang the family. He was in the Top 14 fifteen months later.

Axel Guillaud was on the point of signing for Section Paloise in the summer of 2024 when his family took a phone call from Didier Retière, Clermont’s director of rugby. He changed his mind and joined the club he had supported as a boy instead.

Full-back at Clermont, 1.89m and 86kg, can play fly-half, and kicks goals from distance.

Guillaud is from Bourgoin-Jallieu and started at CSBJ in 2011. In 2023-24 he came out of an FFR camp into the France Under-18 squad for the Six Nations Festival, and won the national under-18 championship with Bourgoin alongside Timéo Frier, taking the club back into the Crabos division.

He settled into the Clermont espoirs immediately and was training with the professionals by November. A France Under-20 development call followed, and he started at full-back against Italy, putting Jérémy Namor in for a try in a 55-36 win. He was called up for the 2025 Under-20 Six Nations and could not go, still recovering from injury. In April he started against England and scored in a 40-14 win. He finished that season with a hat-trick against Aurillac in a 45-30 win that was not enough to reach the play-offs.

His Top 14 debut came in round five of 2025-26 with Kylan Hamdaoui unavailable. He put Joris Jurand in for a try, added a second assist and scored himself in an 84-31 win. He kept the shirt the following week against Toulon and set up another.

In the Champions Cup he was one of very few Clermont players to come out of heavy defeats to Saracens and Sale with any credit, scoring against Saracens. Then the Under-20 Six Nations, a try off the bench against Italy, and a share of the Grand Slam.

Composed under a high ball, a real long-range kicking option, and already trusted at nineteen. The question is only whether Clermont can keep giving him the shirt.