Hugo Auradou

A junior world champion at nineteen and a Six Nations winner at twenty-one, whose career was interrupted by a criminal case in Argentina that was dismissed.

Hugo Auradou won the junior world championship in 2023, was capped by France a year later, and has fifteen caps and two Six Nations titles at 23. His father David played for France and his older brother Paul plays in the second division.

Lock at Pau, 2.00m and 105kg.

Before he was a fly-half at Sarlac he was a footballer, and he became a lock only after Mont-de-Marsan converted him. The Pau academy took him in 2020 and he captained its under-23 side. Three Challenge Cup matches came at eighteen, a league debut against Bayonne in December 2022, and a junior world title six months later, in a second row alongside Posolo Tuilagi.

Sam Whitelock’s arrival in 2023 might have blocked him and did the opposite. He treated it as an apprenticeship, took on the lineout captaincy under Sébastien Piqueronies, and was extended to 2028 before a serious ankle injury ended that season.

France capped him in Mendoza on 6 July 2024, starting in the second row in a 28-13 win.

Two days later he and Oscar Jégou were arrested in Mendoza following a complaint of rape, and on 12 July both were charged with aggravated rape and detained. Both said the encounter had been consensual. They were released to house arrest, allowed home in September, and on 4 October the prosecution asked for the case to be dismissed. On 10 December 2024 the judge dropped the proceedings, and the dismissal was confirmed on appeal in February 2025. A further appeal was lodged the following month.

His recall to the France squad in February 2025 was publicly contested. He has since played two more Six Nations and returned to the Top 14 side as a first-choice lock alongside Jimi Maximin.