Thomas Darmon

Twenty-two years at one club, from the rugby school to a French championship, before leaving for Oyonnax in 2026.

Thomas Darmon spent twenty-two years at one club. He arrived at the Montpellier rugby school as a small boy, following two older brothers, and left in 2026 as a French champion and a Challenge Cup winner.

Note on his current club: Darmon is still listed in Montpellier‘s squad data. He signed a two-year contract with Oyonnax Rugby in 2026, alongside his teammate Thomas Vincent.

Centre, 1.81m and 88kg, and 28 years old.

Born in Sète into a rugby family from Poussan, he went through the sport-study stream at Lycée Mermoz in Montpellier and was picked for France under-18s ahead of his age group. He won the European title at that level in 2015 and again in 2016, and a national junior championship with his club in between.

Vern Cotter gave him a Top 14 debut on 9 September 2017, starting, in a win at Castres. What followed was five years of waiting behind better-paid midfielders.

The opening came in 2022-23, when Arthur Vincent, Geoffrey Doumayrou and Jan Serfontein were all injured. Darmon took the shirt and kept it, playing twenty-eight matches, starting twenty-five and scoring nine tries. A France call-up arrived in the middle of that run, as cover for Julien Delbouis against England, and he did not make the match sheet. No second one has come.

In October 2023 he and Enzo Forletta were convicted of aggravated violence and fined 90 day-fines at 70 euros each, over an incident during the 2022 championship celebrations. The other man involved, who had struck the player Pierre Lucas first, was ordered to pay him 1,000 euros.