Quentin Valentino

Quentin Valentino had played twice as a professional when Jack Maddocks withdrew late from a Champions Cup match against Northampton in December 2025. He started it, at centre, alongside Nathan Decron. His club lost 35-27.

A centre, 1.90m and 91kg, on Pau‘s books at 20.

Grasse gave him the game at five and Nice took him at fifteen, where he reached the federal performance programme that identifies the hundred best players of a French age group. France used him at under-18 level at the Six Nations Festival in 2023 and 2024 and on a tour of South Africa.

The Pau academy took him in the summer of 2024. His first senior appearance came that December, in a Challenge Cup match at Ellis Park against the Lions, on in the sixty-sixth minute in a game interrupted by a thunderstorm and lost 43-35 with a bonus point.

France put him in the under-20 development side in November 2024 and made him captain against Italy, and he led a 55-36 win. A year later he started against South Africa at Châteauroux, scored, and won the turnover that closed out a 20-12 victory.

He was part of the France under-20 side that won the Grand Slam in 2026, and has three Top 14 and European appearances to his name.

A tall, light midfielder at 91kg who will need to add weight before he can hold the position over a season. Everything about the record so far says the club rates him well above where his appearance count sits.