Jérémy Fernandez

Jérémy Fernandez started at the SC Mazamet rugby school at five, in the same age group as Thomas Ramos and coached by Ramos’s father. The club folded that category when he was seven. He refused to play a year up, and left.

Scrum-half at Castres, 1.76m and 90kg, born in Mazamet on 15 May 1997. His father and his brother both played in the town.

He spent five years at Aviron Castrais, joined Castres Olympique in 2009 and went into the academy. They trained him as a fly-half and only moved him to nine in the espoirs, which is where the goal-kicking comes from.

Breaking through meant getting past Rory Kockott and Ludovic Radosavljevic, so for most of 2019-20 he trained with the professionals and played with the espoirs. His first matchday squad was a Challenge Cup tie against the Dragons and he started it. He scored his first professional try against Enisey-STM, the late one that secured a bonus point, and made his Top 14 debut against Toulon that January.

When Kockott was injured the following season he took the shirt and scored his first league try against Clermont. The Tarn committee named him its best young player for 2019-20, an award delayed to 2021 by the pandemic. He extended to 2025 and captained the club in the same month of January 2022, at 24.

From 2023-24 the position was his. That season ran to twenty-nine matches and eight tries, and he extended for three more seasons in September 2024. He also became the side’s regular goal-kicker: 182 points the following year, from fifteen starts in twenty-eight appearances, including a decisive hand in a 30-25 win over Lyon in February 2025.

He hurt a hand in a friendly against Harlequins in late August 2025.

A one-club nine who spent four seasons behind a South Africa international, took the shirt when it came free, and then made himself the kicker as well.