Lucas Rey

Lucas Rey’s father Joël captained and later coached the club his son now plays for. Lucas became its permanent captain himself in 2021, and lost the job two seasons later, first to Beka Gorgadze and then to Luke Whitelock. He spoke openly about how much that affected him, and about his closest friends leaving for La Rochelle at the same time.

Hooker at Pau, 1.75m and 92kg, and 29 years old.

Football came first, and rugby only in 2004, when he joined the academy alongside Antoine Hastoy. From fifteen to eighteen he was at the regional centre in Bayonne with Quentin Lespiaucq-Brettes and Thibault Daubagna, still a teammate now.

France won the under-18 European title with him in 2015, beating Georgia 57-0 in a final in which he started alongside three future club-mates and was replaced by Peato Mauvaka.

His debut came in May 2016 and the progression was unhurried: three league matches in 2016-17, thirteen the year after, then a starting place from 2018-19 that he has largely held since. He passed a hundred matches for the club in May 2021 and a hundred and fifty in May 2023, and extended to 2027 in between.

A shoulder that had troubled him for a long time was operated on in September 2024 and cost him most of a season. His return came in late April 2025 against Bayonne, the last side he had faced before the surgery, and he scored.

A short, mobile hooker and a one-club man in a Top 14 that produces very few of them.