Fabrice ESTEBANEZ

Biog of Fabrice ESTEBANEZ :

Laurent Seigne must have thought that Fabrice Estebanez had a screw loose when, on signing the out-of-work rugby player for Brive - who had until then played no higher than Pro D2 - Estebanez nevertheless declared that he “wanted to be an international in three years time.” It was the summer of 2007; Gaillac, where Estebanez had been playing, had just been relegated to the Fédérale 1 for financial reasons and the player originally from Pamiers in the Ariège region had only two years of rugby union behind him.

To be more precise he had only been back playing rugby union for the last two years, because Fabrice Estebanez was a former rugby league international, capped 25 times for France, who only changed codes when he was unable to nail down his first professional rugby union contract when playing for Colomiers “hopefuls”.  So he left for Limoux at the end of the 1990s for a code that already ran through his veins; his father had won the French Rugby League Championship twice with Carcasonne twenty years earlier and his elder brother also played rugby league, for Toulouse Olympique where Fabrice would later join him. In the meantime Estebanez concentrated on adapting to the new game whilst at the same time training to be a plumber.

From his rugby league years Estebanez has retained - in addition to his solid tackling technique and taste (that he has lost none of) for the one on one - enormous pride in having worn the French shirt. He can be all the more proud now that he has become a rugby union international as well – and within the three-year time limit he set himself! Lièvremont and his staff sent Estebanez on the France A tour in June 2009 and then called him into an expanded squad for the 2010 Six Nations tournament, although he did not get a game. Without the intervention of the FFR presidency over the opposition of certain clubs to the Federation concerning the France Rugby Sevens team, Estebanez would have gone on the June 2010 tour of South Africa and Argentina and would have probably earned his first cap.

So to say he was ready when he was finally selected in November 2010 is an understatement. The versatile Estebanez's first experiences with the French team did not come under the easiest of circumstances. He was starting centre in an under-strength French side to play Fiji, had a two minute cameo as replacement for Traille at fly-half against Argentina and appeared for 26 minutes in place of Jauzion back at inside centre in the trouncing at the hands of the Wallabies. But has he done enough to be selected in 2011? At the beginning of the year the answer seemed to have been no, as he was left out of the 30-man squad selected in preparation for the Six Nations tournament. The injury to Maxime Mermoz and the doubtful form of Yannick Jauzion who was dropped after the defeat in Italy re-opened the door to the French team. Estebanez was recalled as a replacement for the last match of the tournament against Wales. Two months later he was named by Marc Lièvremont in the 32-man squad to prepare for the World Cup. “I like his punching qualities,” the coach explained. He earned his second cap as a starter in Dublin, against Ireland, in Ausgust.

Fabrice Estebanez will rejoin Racing-Metro 92 next season.