François TRINH-DUC

Biog of François TRINH-DUC :

At the start of the 2010 Six Nations tournament that would end in a Grand Slam for France, François Trinh-Duc declared, “ I don’t feel as though I’m France’s indisputable number one fly-half. My game is far from perfect.” The same could have been said a few months later after the disastrous tour of South Africa and Argentina (83 points conceded in two matches). The Montpellier fly-half missed out in November due to injury but as Damien Traille could not fill the void he was back for the 2011 Six Nations tournament, buoyed by Montpellier’s good run in the French Championship and the input of new coach Fabien Galthié. He had matured and was now Marc Lièvremont’s undisputed first choice fly-half  (29 caps out of a possible 38 since 2008). Trinh-Duc was now looking more like the finished article but the road ahead proved to be chaotic.

Lièvremont, speaking after the defeat to England on 23 February 2008, nevertheless rated the performance of the halfbacks, the youngest pairing in French rugby history (Trinh-Duc 21 years old, Parra 19) as “exceptional”. Trinh-Duc was celebrating his second match in the starting line up, Parra his first (they have been in the starting line- up together 15 times now). The potential was there but after heady beginnings the Montpellier fly-half was forced, in spite of himself, to grow up. After a period out injured (November 2008) Trinh-Duc was then left on the sidelines as he was not playing to his usual standards in the lead up to the 2009 Six Nations tournament - a tournament that he himself had written off. “I was neither the first nor second choice fly-half for France”, he conceded. But the mistakes and the injuries of his direct competition, Beauxis and Baby, allowed him back into the fold where he has remained since, winning 17 starts.

Trinh-Duc, the first French international with Asian ancestry (his grandfather came from Indochina to settle in France), first played rugby at the age of four at Pic Saint-Loup, 20 km north of Montpellier, and was originally a scrum-half before becoming a fly-half when he joined MHRC colts after a growth spurt at the age of 17. He has many things going for him: defence, speed and a taste for the challenge. He has his own special way of attacking the line (which does so much damage in the Top 14) and the ability to take on his opponent one to one, as his try in the June 2009 victory against New Zealand in Dunedin testifies. But from 2008, Didier Nourault, the coach who was first to show faith in Trinh-Duc at the professional level at Montpellier (in January 2007), warned, “He already has a sense of responsibility but he must now become a subtle tactician.” But has he? Trinh-Duc has so often been chaperoned by Traille or Jauzion (he has only played for France six times without one of them playing alongside him), thus relieving him of some of the responsibilities of decision-making with regard to kicking even though this is an aspect of his game he has been working hard on, and with some success, alongside Gonzalo Quesada, the French team’s kicking coach. Throughout Montpellier’s amazing 2010-2011 season (the first time they had qualified for the European Cup and reached the Top 14 final), Trinh-Duc, as dangerous as ever in attack, demonstrated the progress made in his strategic game. On the international scene, the French team’s problems in gelling resulted in a bumpy ride for Trinh-Duc during the 2011 Six Nations tournament. Nevertheless, France are still banking on Trinh-Duc (unsurprisingly selected) becoming, by the time the preparations for the World Cup are over, the man at the helm. And he certainly has the potential.

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