Guilhem GUIRADO

Biog of Guilhem GUIRADO :

Guilhem Guirado played for France once in 2008 and twice in 2009, and continued building on his limited international experience in 2009-2010 (three times replacement for Szarzewski). Guirado is overshadowed by the inescapable duo of William Servat and Dimitri Szarzewski, but was given his chance and brought into the squad for the November tests due to an injury to Szarzewski (his first match in the starting line-up against Fiji) and the 2011 Six Nations tournament. His rapid rise, due to circumstances beyond his control, highlighted the progress he still has to make if he wants to be considered alongside the best in his position on the international stage.

But Guirado is young and developing at his own pace at Perpignan where, since 2008, he is established as the number one in his position. At 24 years old Guirado already has French Championship winners (replacement 2009) and runners-up (start 2010) medals under his belt and he has played in 28 European Cup matches where the dynamism and impact of the USAP pack’s spearhead were to be seen against Toulon in the quarter-final victory and the semi-final defeat to Northampton. Guirado’s performances were not enough at first to convince Marc Lièvremont to take three hookers to the World Cup in New Zealand, and with this is mind - not surprisingly - Servat and Szarzewski were selected. In the end the injury to Servat in the Top 14 final led Lièvremont to select Guirado by precaution for the World Cup preparations, and he then retained him for the final squad.

The young Catalan, who was born in Céret and learnt his rugby at Arles-sur-Tech before moving to USAP in 2000, is a pure product of the French Federation system. He belongs to the golden generation that won the 2006 Under-21 World Cup and passed through the National Rugby Centre at Marcoussis