Lionel NALLET

Biog of Lionel NALLET :

Nallet is huge and can look a little gangly when he runs, but he eats up the ground as if he were floating on air. He weighs 116 kilos nonetheless, and rarely touches the ball. So when reviewing a break he made whilst playing for his club, Castres, in the middle of winter 2008, where he dummied, pivoted and fed his support, he exclaimed, “I don’t know what happened. I nearly put my knee out turning. I’ve seen it again on the television. It was horrible. When a three quarter does that it’s beautiful - there it was just clumsy.” Lionel Nallet had changed nevertheless. In 2003, passed over for the World Cup, the eternal hopeful who never quite made the breakthrough, always one step behind the experienced Pelous, Brouzet, Auradou and the newcomer, Thion, in the pecking order, got down to work and slimmed down from 123 to 114 kilos. He left Bourgoin, the club that saw his formative years, and moved away from La Bresse, his home region, to join Castres Olympique. And when in November 2005 Laporte at last recalled him, he said, “I had my chance but I wasn’t any good.”

From then on he was good, although still a replacement for Pelous and Thion as before, or from time to time for his friend Papé. Nallet filled the holes brilliantly, undeniably one of THE players of the 2007 Six Nations tournament. He is a tireless second row who picked himself off the ground at the end of the Ireland/France match despite injury because “with one arm,” he explained, “I could still tackle.” But Laporte stuck to his convictions, preferring the supposed superior strength in the scrum of Thion. Nallet was even overtaken in the rankings by the new star, Chabal, who was selected as a second row for the 2007 World Cup. Nallet had to be content with the crumbs from the top table of a World Cup that he could have marked with his presence. He kept his counsel, placing himself once more at the service of the team, his conduct exemplary on and off the pitch. In December 2007 the Top 14 players’ elections were held. Nallet was voted Best French International of the year - a just reward. And then came January 2008 and the great leap forward.

Lionel Nallet was appointed captain by the new coach, Marc Lièvremont. “For the example he sets in combat, for his commitment and,” explained the new staff, “because since the last World Cup he is in our view without doubt a first choice pick.” Past injustices had been put right. Nallet joined other illustrious French second row captains before him, Pelous obviously, but also Benazzi, Roumat, Mias, Dauga and Walter Spanghero. He cites Marc Cecillon* without hesitation as a model captain that he aspires to emulate, Ibanez also. And from 2008 till March 2009 he played 15 matches in a row as captain, overseeing the new generation launched by Lièvremont. However, worn down by the lengthy recovery time of his fractured ribs injury (November 2008), he had to stand down from the June 2009 tour to New Zealand and Australia. It proved to be a turning point.

Nallet lost the captaincy to Thierry Dusautoir. A man of few words, he was not fazed for a moment: “It would have bothered me if I had been replaced by someone who spent all his time making speeches,” he declared. He remains an integral part of the French set up, an ‘ever-present’ in Lièvremont’s plans (even if he did miss the heavy defeat to Australia in November 2010 due to back problems), having played, by the end of the 2011 Six Nations tournament, 30 of the possible 36 matches (29 in the starting line-up). He is also captain of his new team (since 2009), Racing Metro, as he was often for Castres in the troubled times. Still a leader, and certainly late to fulfil his promise but perhaps he will savour the long-awaited times to come all the more. In 2008, having only just digested the disappointments of the 2007 World Cup, the next World Cup in New Zealand must have seemed light years away. Nallet’s place in the French pack for the World Cup is now assured.

Nallet played for Racing in the 2009-2010 Top 14 play-offs (beaten by Clermont 21-17) and the 2010-2011 semi-final (beaten by Montpellier 26-25). During the winter, he played in the disastrous 22-21 loss in Rome (first French defeat against Italy in the Six Nations tournament and first French defeat on Italian soil). He was a different player a week later against Wales at the Stade de France, scoring two tries in an international match for the second time in his career, following the brace against Namibia during the 2007 World Cup.


* Marc Cécillon (46 caps for the French team between 1988 and 1995), the emblematic Bourgoin player who was Nallet’s captain in 1998 and 1999, killed his wife with five shots of a revolver in August 2004. After serving half of his 14-year prison sentence he was released at the beginning of 2011.

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