Loris Zarantonello

Loris Zarantonello played for France at Under-20 level in the 2019 Six Nations, against Ireland and Italy. Five years later he was capped by Italy, through his father’s family in Treviso.

Hooker at Castres, 1.83m and 102kg, born in L’Union in the Haute-Garonne and from Montech in the Tarn-et-Garonne.

He played football before rugby and started the game at ten, with Coquelicots Montéchois. Montauban took him into their academy in 2011 and kept him until 2019.

Agen signed him that year and gave him his Top 14 debut on 28 September 2019, on for Clément Martinez in the 56th minute — against Castres. He played four seasons there, and in his last managed twenty-two matches and four tries. He was on the bench for the play-off Agen lost to Mont-de-Marsan.

He agreed to join Castres in October 2022 and arrived for 2023-24, debuting in the opening round against Pau, on for Gaëtan Barlot. He played all twenty-six league matches that season, six of them starts, plus three in the Challenge Cup where he scored both his tries of the year.

The Italian qualification had been there all along and nobody used it until he was 23.

Gonzalo Quesada put him in a thirty-nine-man Italy group in June 2024 and then in the final touring squad. His debut came off the bench in early July, in a defeat to Samoa.

A back-up hooker who has never missed a matchday squad, which is its own kind of achievement in a position where two men share the shirt.