Demba Bamba

A French judo champion at fourteen who found rugby by accident, and became an international while playing in the second division.

Demba Bamba played handball, then judo, and was a French champion at fourteen. He came to rugby by accident, through a friend, at about the same age. Six years later he was the first France international playing in the second division since 2007.

Tighthead prop at Racing 92, 1.85m and 125kg, and 28 years old.

Saint-Denis is where he is from and Saint-Denis US where he started, before the Île-de-France under-16 side and then Brive, whose academy head Pierre-Étienne Coudert found him. A first professional contract came in 2017-18 and a double with France under-20s in 2018: the Six Nations and the junior world championship, in which he was among the outstanding forwards.

Lyon signed him in the summer of 2018 and immediately loaned him back to Brive, who had been relegated. Jacques Brunel called him up that November regardless, ahead of established tightheads, and he came on against Fiji at the Stade de France in a match France lost for the first time. In February he started against Scotland and was man of the match in a 27-10 win, and he started four of five in his first Six Nations.

Injuries then took the 2019 World Cup off him. He came on in the opening win over Argentina and withdrew from the rest of the tournament.

Five seasons in the Rhône followed, with a Challenge Cup in 2022, before he moved to the capital in 2024. With France he has a Grand Slam from 2022 and a second Six Nations title in 2026.

A powerful, low tighthead and one of the more durable scrummagers in the Top 14 at 28.