Thomas Ceyte

He was 31 before he played a game in the Top 14. Fédérale 1, Pro D2 and a trial arranged at short notice got him there.

In February 2016 Thomas Ceyte was barely playing for Béziers in Pro D2. US Dax needed a medical joker at lock and put several candidates through fitness testing. He passed, tore up his Béziers contract by mutual agreement and drove to the Landes. He was 25, and that trial is the reason there is a career to write about.

Ceyte is a second row, 1.96m and 117kg, and he plays for Clermont.

He is from Aubenas, in the Ardèche, and was developed at RC Aubenas Vals in Fédérale 1. Béziers signed him from there in April 2015 on a two-year deal. It did not work.

Dax did. The joker spell turned into an extension, then a full season as a regular starter. Nevers took him in March 2017 on three years, and he stayed five. In November 2021, in his fifth season in the Nièvre, they made him captain.

A month later he signed a pre-contract with Bayonne, on Grégory Patat’s say-so. Bayonne then went up. So Ceyte, who had spent his whole career in the third and second tiers, walked into the Top 14 at the start of 2022-23, aged 31.

Bayonne did not renew him after 2023-24. Clermont did, on two years plus an option, and he started the first round of the season and played well.

What he gives is unglamorous and hard to replace: lineout ball, scrum weight, and the willingness to do eighty minutes of it. He is not a carrier and Clermont do not use him as one. At 35, with Léo Michaux and Baptiste Veschambre both coming through in the same position, his job this season is to keep the standard high enough that Clermont are not forced to pick a teenager before he is ready.