Philippe BERNAT-SALLES

Biog of Philippe BERNAT-SALLES :

Philippe Bernat-Salles was not a big man, weighing no more than 80kg – something critics held against him throughout his career - but he was renowned for his blinding pace. From 1992 to 2001, he scored 26 tries in 41 selections wearing the number 14 shirt, which is a ratio of 0.63 tries per match, the highest of any of the top ten French points scorers.

Bernat-Salles had a strange career, though. He was 22 when he earned his first cap in the catastrophic defeat against Argentina in Nantes (the first on French soil), and then he was forgotten. Recalled in 1993 for two matches against Romania (scoring a hat trick of tries in both matches), and for the victorious tour of South Africa, he was then dropped again. Finally, at the age of 28, he was selected once more and this time for an extended run. This period included the 1998 Grand Slam, during which he scored the first ever try at the Stade de France (against England), and the successful 1999 World Cup campaign that saw the French team reach the final for only the second time in its history. Bernat-Salles shone during the tournament, scoring four tries including the two that, in his view, were the most memorable of his career: “The first, from 80 metres out, against Argentina in the quarter-finals in Dublin, because I was involved at the start and the finish; the second in the semi-final against New Zealand because I outpaced Wilson”. For the second try, Bernat-Salles followed Magne’s interception and then kicked on himself, ending 80 metres downfield behind the New Zealand line with ball in hand. Lamaison converted, bringing the French tally to 33 points without reply. Philippe Bernat-Salles had faced down the gargantuan Jonah Lomu, who outweighed him by more than 35 kilos.

Bernat-Salles’s international career ended with a record one and a half years later, having scored a try in each match of the 2001 Six Nations tournament - only the second Frenchman ever to have done so (after Sella in 1986), but the first to have done so in the Six Nations era (in five matches). In club rugby, after ten years at Section Paloise (with the exception of one season at Bègles-Bordeaux), during which he reached the semi-final of the French Championship in 1996 and the semi-final of the European Cup in 1998, Bernat-Salles joined Biarritz Olympique. In his new colours he won the French Championship final in 2002 against Agen and played in a semi-final as replacement in 2004. He also reached two European Cup quarter-finals in 2001 and 2003. In 2005 he ended his professional career after BO’s second victorious Brennus shield campaign, having only played in a handful of games and not the final.

Bernat-Salles played for one more year at Capbreton in the Fédérale 3 division and then became their coach before stepping down definitively. Today he is the owner of six campsites on the Atlantic coast and is a rugby pundit for Canal+ Sport. In June 2010 he was elected president of the National Handball League.