Dimitri SZARZEWSKI

Biog of Dimitri SZARZEWSKI :

One match can change everything. On 2 July 2005, Dimitri Szarzewski was named as starting French hooker for the first time, in a match against the Wallabies in Brisbane. One year earlier, on his return from a tour of the United States in which he only played in one match as a replacement, Bernard Laporte, the coach, had told him “You’re not big enough, you need to bulk up to play at international level.” And the man from Béziers produced a match against the World Cup runners-up that changed the way others perceived him, and above all the way he perceived himself. Szarzewski had worked hard to prove Laporte wrong. He would work even harder to achieve his ambition.

So that summer he left Béziers, relegated to Pro D2, for Stade Français, the recent European and French championship finalists. One month after his arrival in Paris he was part of the team that played against Stade Toulousain at the Stade de France. The match was a huge gamble: attempting to attract 80,000 people for a Top 14 match – and the gamble paid off. Szarzewski scored a try from 70 metres out. The second life of the “fighting bull”, as his coach at Béziers, Jean-Pierre Elissalde, called him, had begun in the capital city he first discovered at the age of 17 with his friend Yannick Nynaga, celebrating New Year under the Eiffel Tower before retiring to the foyer of a large Parisian hotel where they “slept like tramps”. Far from Béziers, where he had lived since the age of 11, and far from Cuxac d’Aude, on the outskirts of Narbonne, where his father had settled with his family after leaving the north of France and the Polish Szarzewskis’ first French roots.

Since then, Dimitri Szarzewski, weighing 10 kilos more (105) than when he first played for the ASB first team, has become one of the first-pick French hookers. As hard as nails, dynamite in the legs, combative, powerful, he is an impact player above all, but used as an impact player (too) often. Strong competition has been a dominant factor in his career. At Béziers and then with France he had to contend with Sébastien Bruno, in Paris, Blin and Kayser. In direct competition for the hooker’s berth in the French team there was Bruno, and Servat before his injury, then Ibanez (back one year before the 2007 World Cup), and Servat once more from 2008 onwards and above all since June 2009. On his return from the June 2010 tour of South Africa and Argentina, Szarzewski, with 48 caps (third most-capped French hooker behind Ibanez and Dintrans at only 27 years of age) counted as many appearances from the bench as in the starting line-up! He has replaced Servat eleven times (four times the other way round), Ibanez eleven times (three times the other way round), and Bruno twice (five times the other way round). But he has the capacity to give it his all for half an hour, bringing the extra spirit and energy needed at the end of a match. “Even if it takes 22 to play rugby, I prefer to have the number two on my back,” he says nevertheless. His best run came in 2008-2009 with 12 consecutive games in the starting line up.

Because of his desire to play and remain at the highest level, Szarzewski has never counted the hours spent throwing, running and pumping iron. He would have looked after himself even if he did not play rugby. And he would have played rugby even if he were not a professional. It means so much to him. The young man, very settled in his personal life (married at 21, father of two by 24), no doubt understood this all the more when he had to undergo a shoulder operation in the middle of the 2007 Six Nations tournament, just seven months before the World Cup to be held in France. As always he worked hard and fate took care of the rest (the injury to Blin). He came on to win the final of the Top 14 with Stade Français against Clermont, putting himself back into the French selectors’ reckoning in the process. Szarzewski nudged out Sébastien Bruno to be picked as replacement hooker behind Ibanez for the World Cup. Nyanga sums up “I envy his obstinate streak. When he wants something, nothing gets in his way.”

Szarzewski was not selected for the autumn test series in November 2010 due to an Achilles tendon injury. After a return to the Top 14 at the end of the year, he partially ruptured the already damaged tendon and had to undergo an operation, ruling him out for the rest of the domestic season. Szarzewski recovered rapidly and the hooker only just missed out on Stade Français’ European Challenge cup final defeat to Harlequins on 20 May. Considering that he would be fit for the World Cup in New Zealand, Marc Lièvremont obviously selected him on 11 May. After three weeks of personal training in Florida in May-June, Szarzewski was back to full fitness and participated in the preparations for the World Cup, demonstrating his full recovery during the two friendly matches against Ireland in Dublin where he earned two appearances in the starting line-up (benefitting from an injury to Servat). Over the two matches he proved he had regained his former explosiveness and commitment.