Noah Tisie Nene

He was the only player from a second-division club in a France squad of forty-two. A year later he won a Six Nations.

When Fabien Galthié named forty-two players in January 2025 to prepare for the Six Nations, one of them was playing in the second division. That was Noah Nene, on loan at Dax, and he was the surprise of the list. Thirteen months later he won the tournament.

A centre at Stade Français, 1.92m and 108kg, and 21 years old.

Cachan is where he was born, and football, at centre-back, is what he played first. Rugby came at the Rugby Club Val de Bièvre in Villejuif, and the Paris academy took him in 2022.

He stood out immediately enough to be moved up an age group and sent to the Supersevens, playing all three summer legs of the 2022 edition at Perpignan, La Rochelle and Pau. An injury then cost him most of 2022-23 and, with it, the Under-18 side.

The senior debut came late in 2023-24, away at Toulon. Two weeks later, with the club all but out of the Champions Cup and the coaches minded to give the high-potential youngsters a run, he started at Leinster. France Under-20 picked him for the 2024 Six Nations and he played against Ireland.

Dax took him on loan for 2024-25, an arrangement built on the relationship between Laurent Labit and Jean-Frédéric Dubois and brokered by his agent Antoine Ratinaud. He became one of the revelations of Pro D2 inside a few months, which is what put him in that squad of forty-two.

A shoulder injury in February 2025 ended the loan season and the chance of a cap with it. The cap came a year later, against Wales on 15 February 2026, in a Six Nations France won.