Charles Ollivon

Two years out with a shoulder that would not heal, and talk of retirement at twenty-five. He came back and captained France.

Charles Ollivon spent more than two years out of the game with a shoulder that kept breaking down. At 25 there was open talk that he was finished, and he had to argue to be operated on again. He came back in March 2019, captained France within a year, and is now their highest try-scoring forward.

Back row at Toulon, 1.99m and 114kg, and 33 years old.

The Basque country made him. He started at Saint-Pée at five, played lock for the Nivelle joint side, and moved to No 8 in the junior grades at Bayonne, winning a national junior title in 2012. France never picked him at age-grade level. He credits his handling to pelota, which he played as a child.

His debut came against Bordeaux-Bègles in March 2013 and his first cap against Fiji at the Vélodrome in November 2014, before he had played a full season. Bayonne’s relegation took him to Toulon in 2015.

Then the shoulder. Injured against Castres in April 2017, worsened in a friendly that August, a fractured shoulder blade, an operation, a whole season gone, a relapse in September 2018 within two months of returning to training.

Fabien Galthié and Raphaël Ibañez made him captain in January 2020, ten months after he came back. He handed the armband to Antoine Dupont in the autumn of 2021 and stayed vice-captain, missed the 2022 Grand Slam injured, and passed Olivier Magne’s record for tries by a France forward during the 2023 World Cup.

Two losing Top 14 finals in 2016 and 2017, two losing Challenge Cup finals in 2020 and 2022, and the trophy itself in 2023.