Ryan Chapuis

On 8 December 2024 Ryan Chapuis played his hundredth match for Stade Français, against Munster in the Champions Cup, and he was captain for it. He had joined the club as a cadet in 2012, aged fourteen.

Back-row forward at Stade Français, 1.90m and 105kg, and 28 years old.

Neuilly-sur-Seine is where he was born and the Stade Domontois RC is where he started. Every rung of the Paris academy followed, up to the captaincy of the Espoirs, and there has not been a loan or a season anywhere else in between.

The first Top 14 appearance came against Racing 92 in March 2018 and it was the only one he got that season. That is the ordinary shape of a home-produced back-row forward’s progress at a club that can buy internationals for the same shirt, and it is why a hundred matches took him six more years.

He signed an extension in June 2022 that ran to 2024. There are no caps, no age-grade selections listed against his name and no honours, which makes the centenary match and the armband that came with it the marker of what he is.

Being the academy man in a Paris squad is a particular job. The internationals arrive on three-year deals and leave, and somebody has to be the one who knows how the club does things, which is the role the captaincy against Munster recognised.

Alongside the playing he regularly takes training sessions for the club’s rugby school and its cadet sides, the same age group he arrived in. Professional squads are full of men who say they will do that after they retire. Doing it during a season is a different commitment.