Jérôme PORICAL

Biog of Jérôme PORICAL :

“I’m going to get one (cap) - it would be nice if I go on to earn others…” Jerome Porical said on the eve of his first appearance in the national side. That was in June 2010 in Buenos Aires. France were put to the sword (41-13) but Porical, nearly 25 years old, must have demonstrated enough at full-back to be recalled to the French squad six months later. Porical was in the starting line-up in November of the same year for the match against Fiji (and played well), came on for one minute against Argentina and was in the starting line-up once more for the match against Australia, out of his depth like all of his teammates in the 16-59 defeat. So the Catalan now has four caps to his name. 

All this must have seemed a long way off when Porical knocked at the door of a life coach specialising in body energy at the end of August 2008. “I’m 22 years old, I’m called every name under the sun and I’ve had enough,”* he explained to Patrick Peytavi, the “therapist” who had treated other players in the past (Berbizier, Merle, Saint-André). The young Porical had struggled under the competition from Percy Montgomery the season before. He stuck at it but the only thing everyone was talking about now was the imminent arrival of Dan Carter. So he learnt to step back from it all, to concentrate more, to get into the zone. And the results were not long in arriving. He came to the fore in the 2008-2009 season (176 points in the Top14, 31 in the European Cup) and the feather in his cap came with the French Championship victory with Perpignan over Clermont (22-13), in which he scored 14 points (100%) including two over 50-metre kicks.

Immediately afterwards Porical was called into the France A squad, his first recognition at national level. The Under 20s? The National Rugby Centre at Marcoussis? None of that. Porical’s rugby education was Perpignan. Porical is the son and grandson of other USAP full-backs, successful and/or unsuccessful finalists in their time (final lost in 1977 for Gérald, his father; finals won in 1938 and lost in 1935 and 1939 for his grandfather Paul) and was brought up playing rugby 10 kilometres from Perpignan, on the Têt river at Pézilla-la-Rivière, later signing for USAP Under 18s. He was part of the Under 21 French Championship winning side in 2005 before joining the ranks of the first team in the 2006-2007 season.

Porical has innate speed – “Jérôme is extremely fast, over longer distances especially, which is quite rare; he runs 50 metres in under 6 seconds,” adds Didier Plana, fitness coach at Perpignan – and put on 5 kg over the 2009-2010 season in order to dominate the contact area and become the complete full-back for the Catalan club. Porical is still the kicker (181 points in the Top 14 and 34 in the H cup), and was excellent in the semi-final victory over Toulouse, scoring all of USAP’s 21 points, but he could not repeat the performance in the final (lost) kicking only two goals and missing a few along the way. Since then his international adventure has continued. But for how long?

* L’Equipe, 29 May 2010.