Lucas Dessaigne

In September 2022, against a La Rochelle side that were champions of Europe, Lucas Dessaigne made twenty-nine tackles and missed none of them. It was the highest total Opta had recorded in the Top 14. Clermont won 22-13.

Note on his current club: Dessaigne is still listed in Clermont‘s squad data. He was contracted to June 2027 but asked to be released early after losing most of two seasons to injury, and the club agreed. He joined US Montauban for 2026-27.

Flanker, 1.88m and 96kg, and he describes himself as a tackler and a jackal. He says he models the role on Alexandre Lapandry, his old Clermont teammate, and on David Pocock.

Born in Riom, raised in Enval, he started at six at Ovalimagne and played at Ennezat, where his father turned out. Clermont found him at eleven at one of their detection days. He won a French title with their under-15s, joined the elite academy group in 2017 and captained the espoirs. He was a France universities international in 2019 while studying sports science, and played in a 39-22 win over England students.

His first European appearance ended with concussion three minutes after he came on against Ulster. His first start came at Toulon on 27 December 2020, and he took the captaincy from Wesley Fofana for a few minutes of it.

2021-22 was the season he became a regular: 22 games, seven starts. Then the La Rochelle performance, followed by a neck injury and another concussion that cost him three months. Christophe Urios started him in the first three matches of 2023-24 and he signed an extension to 2027 during the World Cup break.

In pre-season 2024 he ruptured a cruciate ligament in a friendly against Toulon. He did not play again until September 2025, sixteen months later.

He also coaches. His father runs RC Riom, Dessaigne helped out there and took his coaching badges in 2020, and in 2022-23 he coached Robin Couly, who later became his teammate at Clermont.

He won the espoirs championship in 2018. At Montauban he should get the minutes the knee cost him.