Pierre Castillon

Pierre Castillon is 1.85m and 104kg, which is a compact, heavy back-rower rather than a tall one. He turned 22 in September.

French, and in the Bayonne squad.

Twenty-two is the age at which an academy player either starts appearing on team sheets or starts looking for a club in a lower division, and there is no public record of which is happening here. No encyclopedia entry exists for him in any language, nothing is filed under his name at age-grade level, and the club’s season summaries pass over him.

His proportions suit an openside or a No. 8 in the modern French game, where the premium is on getting low over the ball rather than on height.

Bayonne’s back row carries an Australia international in Rob Leota and a France international in Alexandre Fischer, and the club recruits internationally rather than promoting heavily from within.

That is the honest frame for this page: a squad number, a set of measurements, and a competitive position that is difficult to read from outside. It gets rewritten when the record supports more.