David MARTY

Biog of David MARTY :

2010 was a strange (international) year for David Marty. He had not known a similar run on the bench since 2006 - four times replacement in six matches between February and June. Marty then appeared in the starting line-up against Fiji before being dropped again. He was used as a high quality back-up for the two heavyweights in the Tricolores centre: Yannick Jauzion (105 kg, 68 caps) and Mathieu Bastareaud (only 9 caps but weighing in at 120kg!). Marty then found himself fourth choice behind Fabrice Estebanez and Rougerie, who was now being selected at centre. Nevertheless, without a word of complaint, the Catalan puncher did his job brilliantly, making the most of his only start in the 2010 Grand Slam against Italy to score his ninth and tenth tries in French colours (from 29 appearances at that time).

And if, despite his 30 caps, it is still sometimes hard to see Marty as a first choice centre in France’s back-line, look no further than the job he does for Perpignan, surrounded by his own, - throwing his weight around, dependable, going that extra yard and scoring (see the try Marty scored in the 2009 Top 14 final against Clermont that turned the tide in favour of USAP). Bernard Laporte, the first French coach to select Marty in 2005, liked his effervescent temperament. “If you locked him in a dark room with ten starving blokes and threw in a steak, you can be sure Marty would come up with the meat,” Laporte said the day after the historic victory over the All Blacks in Cardiff in the quarterfinal of the 2007 World Cup. Marty played in six matches (out of seven) in the competition, all of them in the starting line-up.

Two and a half years earlier, when starting out on his international career, Marty declared, “ I love rugby. It’s my passion. If I’m not tired, I don’t think about the overtime (I’m putting in)”. And he worked hard on his pass with scrum-half Nicolas Durand, conscious of the need to improve his technique. Marty perhaps knew what hard work meant more than most. At the time he was still helping out at his father’s carpentry business for three hours every morning, and with a Civil Engineering diploma he saw his future as a site manager rather than a professional rugby player. He ended up changing the blueprints, however, but not the region, being above all a proud Catalan hailing from Villelongue-la-Salanque, 12 km north of Perpignan and not far from the seafront where he owns a beach bar.

So it was an immense source of satisfaction to him to bring the French Championship title back to Catalonia’s “Blood and Gold” supporters in June 2009, a feat followed by another unlikely adventure - reaching the final against the same opponents, Clermont, one year later (Marty had already been a losing finalist in 2004 against Stade Français). Along with club captain Nicolas Mas, who he has deputised for from time to time this year, David Marty is the Perpignan player to have appeared most regularly for France since 2005. Despite appearances Marty has been in the starting fifteen more often than he has been replacement - 24 times, for the most part lining up alongside Jauzion (12 times) and Traille (7 times). Laporte liked Marty, Laporte’s successor Marc Lièvremont likes him (at least up until June 2010), and Marty returned to Les Bleus after recovering from the partial rupture of a ligament in his right knee sustained in October 2008. He was dropped from the squad after the unconvincing victory over Fiji (34-12). Did this mean 2011 would be less rosy for Marty?

Although originally selected for the extended squad to prepare for the Six Nations tournament, he was left out of the thinned-down group for the matches. Then on 12 March in Rome France came unstuck and Marty, amongst others, was recalled to add fresh legs to the team, appearing in the starting line-up in the last match against Wales. Straight afterwards, he played for Perpignan- without shining- in a European Cup quarter-final at the Montjuic stadium in Barcelona – a dream that the Catalan club had been pursuing for nearly ten years – and then a semi-final that Northampton easily won. USAP did not qualify, though, for the knock out stages of the Top 14. And although Marty’s performances in the second half of the season were not entirely convincing he was selected for his second World Cup campaign nonetheless.