Corentin Mézou

Brittany produced him and his older brother, both professionals, from a region with almost no rugby tradition.

Plougastel-Daoulas, in Finistère, has produced two professional rugby players and they are brothers. Corentin Mézou is the younger. In September 2024 he made his senior debut, and a week later played against the club that trained him, where his brother Timothé was in the opposition pack.

Lock at Toulon, 2.03m and 107kg, and 21 years old.

The rugby started at Landerneau and Plabennec, two Breton clubs, before Vannes took him in 2020 at fifteen. Toulon signed him three years later.

France picked him for the under-20 Six Nations almost immediately, and he made his first appearance in that competition against Ireland in 2024. That summer the French junior side reached the world championship final and lost it to England.

His Top 14 debut came that September, starting against Stade Français, which is unusually early for a second row in a squad carrying several internationals.

January 2025 brought a second under-20 Six Nations campaign and, this time, the title. He finished that season as a losing finalist in the national under-23 championship with his club and was picked for another junior world championship days later.

Two under-20 world championships in successive years, a Six Nations title, an under-23 final and a senior debut, all before his twenty-first birthday. Very little of that is normal for a Breton second row.

At 2.03m he is among the tallest forwards on the books and at 107kg he has weight still to add, which is the ordinary arithmetic of a 21-year-old lock. Everything else is ahead of the curve.