Jules Coulon

He left Metz and his family at fifteen for a club 900km away, and scored his first league try against the same side he debuted against.

Jules Coulon was spotted at a junior tournament in Metz by a Toulon scout, and at fifteen he left Moselle and his family for the other end of the country. Rugby in Lorraine does not produce professionals, and there was no second route available to him.

He plays blindside for Toulon, is 1.89m and 104kg, and is 24.

RC Metz gave him the game at nine and the academy on the coast took him in 2017. His senior debut came in November 2021 at the Stade Marcel-Michelin against Clermont, on for Cornell du Preez in a defeat.

The symmetry two years later was almost exact. On 18 November 2023, at the same ground and against the same club, he scored the first league try of his career, then added a second in a 30-27 away win. A first professional try had come in the Challenge Cup against Benetton in April 2022.

France used him twice in the 2022 under-20 Six Nations and again in that summer’s Six Nations Summer Series, where he played all four matches and scored.

What changed his standing was 2024-25. Fifteen matches, nine of them starts, a fiftieth appearance for the club against Bayonne, and a first professional contract that runs to June 2027. He had already been the outstanding player on the losing side in a Challenge Cup tie at Glasgow the season before.

A fast, powerful blindside with no honours yet and a Top 14 squad place secured at 24, which for an academy forward on this coast is not a small thing.