Guram Papidze

He played water polo until he was fifteen. Eight years later he started a Test match against Australia.

Guram Papidze played water polo until he was fifteen, and had never held a rugby ball before that. Eight years later he started a World Cup match against Australia.

Tighthead prop at Pau, 1.87m and 122kg, and 29 years old.

Born in Tbilisi, he came to France three years after taking up the game, into the Lyon academy, and made his professional debut in a Challenge Cup match against Cardiff in October 2017. A loan to Nevers followed, which turned into a contract of two years plus an option.

La Rochelle took him in 2021 on a single season as the third tighthead behind Uini Atonio and Joel Sclavi. He still played nineteen matches, which says something about how a French squad uses its front row across a season.

He moved to Pau in 2022 looking for more rugby and got it immediately, becoming a regular in his first season and extending to 2027 in December 2023.

Georgia capped him against Portugal in July 2022, off the bench for Beka Gigashvili. Four months later he started at the Principality Stadium in the win over Wales, the most significant result in his country’s history. A European Championship followed in 2023, beating Portugal in the final, and he played twice at that year’s World Cup.

Away from the game he reads and watches films, and speaks fluent French, which is less common among the Georgian forwards working in the French league than the length of their careers there would suggest.

A heavy, orthodox tighthead in his fifth season in the Top 14 and his prime years as a Test prop.