Julien PIERRE

Biog of Julien PIERRE :

In the space of a year, Julien Pierre has disrupted the second row hierarchy. Previously, Pierre had only played for France twice - in June 2007, when an under-strength team were sent like lambs to the slaughter to tour New Zealand (103 points conceded in two matches), since most of the usual starting line-up were playing in the knockout stages of the Top 14. Two and a half years after he had earned his first caps - caps that could well have turned out to be his last - Julien Pierre was back in the French squad: still a back-up, well down the pecking order behind Millo-Chlusky and Chabal, both out injured, but on the bench at least. Then Papé was also forced to drop out and 28-year-old Pierre found himself in the starting line-up for the last three rounds of France’s ninth Grand Slam winning campaign, playing all three matches in their entirety. Ten months earlier, however, he had almost given up rugby.

In June 2009, Pierre travelled to Indonesia to visit an uncle who was involved in a conservation project for the Sumatran tiger, and caught malaria. He lost a good 10 kilos and the illness left him drained. “I wondered whether it was the end of my career,” Pierre declared in the pages of L’Equipe magazine in April 2010. Finally back on his feet and in better shape than before Pierre, in the months that followed, was appointed Clermont vice-captain by Vern Cotter and was recalled to the French squad by Marc Lièvremont. Pierre “knows what he wants, and above all, is willing to pay the price,” revealed Christophe Urios in Rugby Hebdo in March 2006. The young second row forward had taken off at Bourgoin, having arrived in the summer of 2003 from La Rochelle (France Under 21s champions 2002), where he attended their rugby school after first playing for La Roche-sur-Yon. At 24, Pierre already had a Top 16 semi-final (2005 - the last in Bourgoin’s history to date) under his belt and was preparing to fly off to South Africa to play in a charity match for a World XV, even though he was almost unknown in the French Championship. Pierre was not the finished article, for sure, but the potential was there to be seen. “Discreet in his personal life and a role model on the pitch,” according to Pierre Raschi, his coach in the Isère.

Pierre’s arrival at Bourgoin was a turning point, his departure from the Isère another. “The higher the level, the more he is at ease,” commented Didier Retière, the Tricolores forwards coach, during last year’s Six Nations tournament. Julien Pierre, playing for Clermont since the summer of 2008, had improved to such a point that he surprised the French staff with how easily he had adapted to a world only fleetingly experienced in June 2007, leading Marc Lièvremont to comment: “At the beginning we had a few doubts about his athletic potential at the international level. Maybe you could say that as a player, he didn’t have any outstanding qualities, but you can also say that he doesn’t have any faults either.” So Pierre became a very serious candidate for the second row berth alongside the irreplaceable Lionel Nallet and played in all of France’s matches in 2010 (five times in the starting line-up, five times as replacement).

Pierre, a big inquisitive man who practically grew up in the zoo managed by his parents in Sable-d’Olonne, seems to have become central to Clermont’s plans, winning the French Championship in June 2010 against Perpignan (coming on in the 53rd minute), after losing the final the year before against the same opponents (in the starting line-up). The 2011 Six Nations tournament confirmed Pierre’s position as France’s second lock forward, selected ten times there by Lièvremont (equal highest number of caps (10) in the position with the often-injured Toulouse player, Millo-Chlusky) behind Nallet (29 caps). Pierre, selected for the 2011 World Cup, replacement for Clermont in the Top 14 semi-final defeat to Toulouse, will once more find himself in competition with “Millo” and Pascal Papé. Will he be able to hold on to his advantage?

ITW Julien Pierre Rugby Connection 1/2

ITW Julien Pierre Rugby Connection 2/2

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