Christophe DOMINICI

Biog of Christophe DOMINICI :

Christophe Dominici is a child of the Var, of Solliès-Pont, more precisely. He played for La Valette and then Rugby Club Toulonnais in the region but his finest rugby days were spent in Paris at Stade Français. The Parisian club had fallen on hard times before being revived by Max Guazzini in the 1990s. Dominici arrived in the summer of 1997 when the club had just recently been promoted to the elite championship. Dominici won his first French championship that same season (1998) and would go on to win four more in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2007 (he also played in the 2005 final defeat). Dominici also reached two European finals (2001 and 2005) with Stade Français and would become one of the rejuvenated Parisian club’s iconic figures.

In signing for Stade Français, Dominici at last became fully professional and the benefits would open doors to the French team. He was called up for the start of the 1998 Five Nations tournament at the age of 25. His first cap (of 67) was also the occasion for two more firsts: the first rugby match to be played at the Stade de France and Dominici’s first try (of 25) wearing the French shirt. Dominici’s Parisian adventure would also mark the beginning of his relationship with Bernard Laporte, Stade Francais coach and future coach of the French team (2000-2007). The relationship between the two men would later prove important when Dominici, the flamboyant hero of the 1999 World Cup campaign and the semi-final against the All Blacks that he did so much to ignite, was perhaps no longer the player he used to be. Laporte selected Dominici for the 2003 and 2007 World Cups (after 19 months out of the team in 2003, and at the age of 35 in 2007) without any obvious sporting logic, allowing Dominici to become France’s highest World Cup try-scorer (8).

A member of the 2004 Grand Slam winning team, a bit-part player in the 1998 Grand Slam team (two matches), Dominici, in the image of the second French try against New Zealand in the 1999 World Cup semi-final when the ball bounced up into his hands, was a man who knew how to grab his chance. He was a formidable opportunist attracting the lucky bounce, an evasive little winger (1.72m) who used speed to go round players as well as to jink through them.

In addition to the successes above, Dominici also played in the victory over the Springboks in Johannesburg in 2001 and scored a hat trick in Romania in 2000; but he also experienced difficult times, both personal (depression in November 2000 and a bleak period in 2001-2003) and collective, such as the resounding defeats against England (Twickenham 2001: 48-19, the 2003 and 2007 World Cup semi-final losses) and New Zealand (6-45 in 2004, 3-47 in 2006).

The disappointing 2007 World Cup campaign in France in which he appeared in the starting line-up for the two defeats against Argentina (opening match, third place play-off) marked the end of Dominici’s international career. He brought an end to his club career a year later, in June 2008, after a last Championship semi-final, immediately taking up the post of assistant coach to the Australian Ewen Mckenzie at Stade Francais, in charge of the three-quarters. The adventure lasted a year before the coaching team was let go. Today Dominici is a member of the back-room staff at Stade Francais.