Juan Martín Scelzo

He signed his first professional contract during a season in which he did not play a single senior match.

In 2023-24 Juan Martín Scelzo did not play once for the senior side. Physical problems took the year and he spent it with the reserves. In March 2024, in the middle of that, the club gave him his first professional contract anyway.

Number 8 at Stade Français, 1.92m and 110kg, and 24 years old.

He was born in Narbonne because his father was playing there. Martín Scelzo was an Argentina international prop and spent part of his career at RC Narbonne, and the son followed him into the game young.

Clermont did most of the raising. He came through the academy and played at US Issoire on a dual licence, the standard arrangement for a young forward who needs matches rather than training. Argentina picked him for their under-20s during those years.

He left Clermont in 2022 without having played a professional match for them, and signed an academy contract in Paris that ran to 2024. The debut came in his first season there: two Top 14 matches and five in the Challenge Cup.

Then the lost year, and the contract signed inside it. He came back to the top flight in October 2024, twenty-one months after his previous senior appearance, which is a long time to be out at twenty-two.

Being born in France to an Argentina international leaves a player with a choice to make, and the age-grade selection points one way while the whole of his rugby education points the other.

He covers both the middle and the side of the back row, at 1.92m and 110kg. A club does not hand a four-figure absence a professional deal unless it thinks the body will hold, and the wait since suggests it has.