Marc ANDREU

Biog of Marc ANDREU :

Marc Andreu’s international career started with a two-minute cameo at the end of France’s victory over Wales in Cardiff in the third round of the 2010 Six Nations tournament. He did not touch a ball, nor did he make a tackle but he ended the tournament in the starting line-up (against Italy and England), untameable on the wing. In club rugby he finished the Top 14 season with the highest number of line and tackle breaks. Marc Andreu, at 1.70m and 78kg, is perhaps a pixie in the land of the giants but he has got quick feet and runs rings around his opponents. Laurent Labit, his coach at Castres explains, “He creates doubt - he can go left, right and even between the legs!”

Andreu arrived at Castres for the 2009-2010 season after beginning his career at Toulon. A native of the Var, but raised near Nogaro in the Gers, Andreu returned to the land of his birth in his teens and discovered rugby at 16 years of age after many years spent playing football. He joined FC Toulon almost by accident after a trial for their Under21 side. Andreu, playing for the newly-promoted Toulon, exploded onto the nation’s screens one August evening in 2008 in the opening match of the Top 14. At 23 years of age, Andreu had only been playing rugby for seven seasons (although two had been in the Pro D2). That evening Clermont Auvergne, the Mayol crowd, and rugby fans as a whole discovered the stunning footwork of the young Toulon player. Andreu, with his sprinter’s thighs and low centre of gravity, is strangely reminiscent of his illustrious predecessor from the Var, Christophe Dominici. And equally free of hang-ups. The season before, Andreu had worked hard in the RCT set-up under the aegis of the renowned athletics coach Jacques Piasenta (Marie-José Pérec and Christine Arron’s coach, in particular).

Notwithstanding Andreu’s abilities, the Toulon staff (Umaga and later Saint-André) remained unconvinced of his worth and so Andreu signed for Castres where his game blossomed to the point that he attracted the attention of the French selectors. Despite the strong competition for the position (Clerc, Malzieu, Médard, Palisson, Fall, Huget), Andreu was selected for the June 2010 tour and was a member of Marc Lièvremont's squad for the November tests, picking up two more caps (one in the starting line-up against Argentina). Can Andreu make the position his own for the next World Cup?