Paul Gabrillagues

A six-week suspension became three on appeal. That was the difference between going to a World Cup and watching it.

France’s first World Cup warm-up of 2019, against Scotland, cost Paul Gabrillagues six weeks for an illegal and dangerous clear-out. The appeal brought it down to three, which was the difference between going to Japan and watching from home. He played three matches there, including the quarter-final France lost 20-19 to Wales.

Second row at Stade Français, 1.97m and 106kg, and 33 years old.

He grew up in the thirteenth arrondissement, the son of an accountant and a social security employee, and he was a footballer first — Sporting Club de Paris, and a Paris Saint-Germain supporter. Rugby did not arrive until he was twelve, at the Paris Université Club.

One professional club has had all of it. He made his Top 14 debut against Castres in August 2014 and was a French champion by the end of that first season. His first professional contract came in 2016. In 2017 he came out against the proposed merger with Racing 92.

Then two seasons that made his name on the least glamorous measure there is. In 2016-17 he played twenty-four matches, started twenty-two and finished the championship’s leading tackler; the following year he was the most-used forward in the squad and led the tackle count again. In between came the 2017 Challenge Cup, won 25-17 against Gloucester with him starting.

His first cap was against New Zealand at the Stade de France in November 2017, alongside Sébastien Vahaamahina. He was hurt five minutes into the next match and missed the third. A Six Nations debut arrived in 2018 as a replacement for Arthur Iturria, and he finished that tournament starting, with a try against Italy.

Four years then passed without a call, the whole of Fabien Galthié’s first cycle. Thibaud Flament’s injury brought him back in January 2024. Eighteen caps, two tries.