Teddy Baubigny

Teddy Baubigny played football and, more seriously, golf, and came to rugby only at thirteen. His godfather Patrick Serrière talked him into it. In 2020-21 he scored eight tries in twenty league matches, which for a hooker is a striking return.

Hooker at Toulon, 1.84m and 118kg, and 27 years old.

Meaux is his home town and Racing 92 took him in 2013. He was tried at centre, in the back row and at loosehead before hooker settled it, and then had to get past Dimitri Szarzewski and Camille Chat, two France internationals, to play at all.

France called him up in January 2020 to replace Chat and capped him against Italy in the Autumn Nations Cup that November. He has three caps, and played an uncapped match against Uruguay for the France development side in July 2024.

Six seasons at Racing brought a European Cup final in 2020, lost. He moved to the coast for 2022-23 into another queue, this time behind Christopher Tolofua and Anthony Étrillard.

The reward came quickly. He started the 2023 Challenge Cup final in a front row with Dany Priso and Beka Gigashvili, beat Glasgow 43-19, and won the first trophy of his career at 24.

Three caps in six years of being close to the squad is a thin return for a player of his quality, and it says more about the depth France have carried at hooker than about him.

A mobile, ball-carrying hooker who scores more than the position usually allows, and who has spent almost his whole Top 14 career competing with internationals for a shirt.