Nicolas MAS

Biog of Nicolas MAS :

Nicolas Mas earned 30 out of a possible 36* caps over four years, which merely underlines his standing. He is the indisputable first choice tight-head prop of the Lièvremont era. On the eve of the 2008 Six Nations tournament, the door to the French team opened definitively for this pure-bred Catalan, who has only played for two clubs in his entire career: Argelès-sur-Mer and Perpignan, where he has been captain for the last three seasons. Since his first cap, four years before, in June 2003, Mas had been used as a stopgap in the Tricolores front row (once in 2003, four times in 2005, nine times in 2007) behind the permanent fixtures of Pieter de Villiers and Sylvain Marconnet. And Mas had also been able to play for almost two seasons injury-free.

The most recent - although not the worst - injury was a deep tear to the calf muscle (14cm!) that deprived him of the 2006 summer tour. In March 2005, a second cervical hernia (after a first in 2002) necessitated a second operation and another seven months out – a string of bad luck after a very promising Six Nations tournament (four starts in place of the injured De Villiers). It is therefore easy to understand how the captain of the newly-crowned French champions felt when, in June 2009, he said, “I think the curse has been lifted”. He was at last able to string together trouble-free seasons, starting with the 2007 World Cup, when he was called up in extremis for the injured Sylvain Marconnet. Mas did not play much in the World Cup, it is true, being placed behind the polyvalent Jean-Baptiste Poux in the pecking order (today Mas’ replacement!), but at least he was there.

Then 2008, and the open door to the French team. The prop who had grown up in the shadows (although he has played in 55 European cup games, including a final in 2003 and a French championship final in 2004 before those in 2009 (won) and 2010 (lost)) had reached maturity. Didier Sanchez, scrum coach at Perpignan, says, “He reminds me of Jean-Pierre Garuet**, not very big but very good technically.” Mas was the cornerstone of the 2010 Grand Slam much as his predecessor was for that of 1987. He may not talk much, but he is more than capable of chastising the Perpignan second row all the same: “If you touch a ball in the loose, I’ll have you! Your first job is to push in the scrums.” The Catalan captain who, to relax, escapes to les Abères, his native mountains, or under the bonnet of his Volkswagen Beatles, has his feet planted firmly on the ground. A builder by trade (he worked with his father between the ages of 17 and 21), he understands that everything has its place and the foundation of any successful rugby team is the scrum. So he pushes as he has always pushed. At 16 he already weighed 100 kilos: he was destined to become a prop.

He will without doubt be the French tight-head prop in the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand. Before then he is in need of a good break after a long hard season for the national side (seven caps in the starting line-up out of eight matches) and Perpignan. USAP had a mixed season, failing to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Top 14 but reaching the semi-finals of the European Cup, fulfilling, in the process, a dream that the club had held for nearly a decade: to play a European quarter-final in Barcelona (Perpignan beat Toulon at the Montjuic stadium).


* 34 in reality since in June 2008 the French team left on tour without the semi-finalists of the Top 14, of which Mas was one with USAP.
** Jean-Pierre Garuet, 42 caps between 1983 and 1990, Grand Slam and finalist of the first World Cup in 1987, was considered for a time as the best tight-head prop in the world.