Maxime MÉDARD

Biog of Maxime MÉDARD :

By 2010, Maxime Médard was back to his flamboyant best, performing as well as he had when he won 14 out of a possible 14 caps between November 2008 and November 2009 (13 times in the starting line-up), playing full-back (8 times) and wing (5 times) equally competently. In between times, the Toulouse player had suffered two setbacks - the kick in the backside he needed, he said in 2009. Two personal problems: a separation and a bereavement nine months apart both having opposite effects, the first plunging him into despair, the second snapping him out of it a few days before the European Cup semi-final that saw him back on the right track (May 2010). He became unstoppable, deep in the Toulouse backfield, the highest try-scorer in the Top 14 in 2010-2011 (15). Médard was recalled to the national side after a year of kicking his heels, and became one of the first names on the team sheet. Will Médard’s career (without doubt one of the most talented players of his generation) be comprised of nothing but highs and lows? 

Médard’s debut for the Toulouse first team came in November 2004 (against Castres, at centre!), scoring his first try that same day. He signed his first professional contract in 2005 aged 18. “A little early,” president René Bouscatel later admitted. Having left the strict surroundings of the National Rugby Centre at Marcoussis, he lost his way. Supremely talented, Médard found that everything came too easily. “I show-boated, I was a party animal,” he admitted. Then he suffered the first personal setback and in June 2007 Emile Ntamack, coach of the Toulouse “hopefuls” for whom Médard was now playing after being dropped from the first team, laid it on the line. “If you go on like this you won’t make it,” he stressed. So as the rest of France was warming up for the World Cup, Maxime Médard laced up his boxing gloves in his hometown Blagnac’s gymnasium and prepared to suffer under the watchful eye of Mohamed Benama, former world champion Mayar Monshipur’s trainer. Médard lost seven kilos and learnt how to take pain, humbly explaining that he “struggled,” and adding, “if someone said ‘jump,’ I said ‘How high?’”

Until then, at best Médard had picked up just ten starts for the Toulouse first team. The new season proved to be his most productive to date, making the most of the game time that the serious injuries to Clerc and Poitrenaud “granted” him. Médard started 25 of the 27 matches he played in and became second-highest try-scorer (14) in the Top 14 behind Napolioni Nalaga. He played in the European Cup final defeat against Munster (in the starting line-up on the wing) and started the French Championship final victory against Clermont at full-back, scoring the second Toulouse try. The week before, Médard had also scored in the semi-final against Stade Français and set up a try as well, causing Fabien Galthié, the Paris club’s coach to exclaim, “the lad can fly.” Médard seemed to be really enjoying himself, an impression backed up by his words: “At Toulouse we learn to play with the ball, not to hoof it.” He has a good left boot on him, nevertheless.

Then in November 2008, he got his international reward. “Maxime Médard was an obvious choice for les Bleus given the start he has made to this season and his potential,” Marc Lièvremont explained. But Médard seemed subdued. Where was the flare, “the natural, instantaneous, rugby” that the Toulouse manager Guy Novès talked about? “When I watched France’s matches when I was young and the backs didn’t run the ball back I would turn the television off,” Médard later commented. “After my first three matches I said to myself, “damn, quite a few youngsters must have turned off their televisions by now. But I did manage to settle down more in the end.” And he was certainly back to his free-running best on 13 June 2009 when he intercepted a pass intended for Rokocoko, on the Carrisbrook pitch in Dunedin, and scored a try from 60 metres out that would seal the French victory over New Zealand (22-27). This was before the black hole, and notably before his renaissance, later crowned by the 2010 European title (he was in the starting line-up for the final).

In 2010-2011, Médard was in good form from the start. At the end of the season, in which he earned a second French Championship title and was the Top 14’s highest try-scorer, Médard was Toulouse’s most-used player, appearing in 31 matches, 28 of which were in the starting line-up. After a single cap in November against Fiji, he played in four of the five matches in the 2011 Six Nations tournament, only missing the game against England through injury. He will be, without doubt, one of the main stays of the French back line in the World Cup in New Zealand.

* L’Equipe Magazine, 18 April 2009.

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