Rayan Rebbadj

Rayan Rebbadj won the Olympic sevens title with France in Paris in 2024 and was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur by decree that September. There are not many rugby players on a club squad list with that on their record.

Wing or centre at Toulon, 1.90m and 100kg, and 27 years old.

The family has been at this club before him. His uncles Rabah and Salek played for it in the late 1980s, and his older brother Swan is a France international in the same squad. He was born in Martigues into a family of Algerian origin and learned the game at Port-de-Bouc.

He came into the Toulon under-23 side, won a national title with it in 2019, and signed his first professional contract in 2021. A first senior start came in the Challenge Cup against Worcester in January 2022.

The sevens record is where the substance is. Third at Hong Kong in 2022 and at Toulouse in 2023, second at Vancouver in 2023 and Hong Kong in 2024, third at Vancouver again, a tournament win in Los Angeles, and the 2023-24 World Series decided in Madrid. Then the Olympic final.

What that has cost him is a fifteen-a-side career. Splitting a season between the France sevens programme and a Top 14 squad leaves very little room for either, and his club appearances have stayed few as a result.

Whether the fifteen-a-side half of it now takes over is the question of the next two seasons. The sevens cycle that produced the gold medal has ended, and at 27 he has a club contract and, for the first time, a full season available to honour it.

A big, fast, positionally flexible back, and an Olympic champion at 25.