Morgan PARRA

Biog of Morgan PARRA :

Wednesday 15 November. The date must have been circled in red in Pierre Raschi’s diary. In autumn 2006 Bourgoin were aiming for the semi-finals of the Top 14, but were floundering in sixth place, a position they were unaccustomed to at the time. The Isère team’s manager was becoming impatient. In his ranks he had a young lad from Metz who had held his own at “ten” in a friendly match against Harlequins in August, playing opposite Andrew Mehrtens, a luminary of the rugby world! This “youth” was Morgan Parra - not yet 18 years old but who would turn 18 on 15 November editor’s note: you must be 18 years old in France before you can play senior rugby. And so on the 18th of the month there he was in the starting line-up at just 18 years and three days old for the match against Agen in the Top 14. It was the first match of his adult career but it was built on solid foundations, with two years at the National Rugby Centre at Marcoussis and a French Under 21s Championship title with CSBJ already under his belt. In the Pierre-Rajon stronghold, Bourgoin won 31-18.

Yet the “little” Parra is no bigger than the average Frenchman, measuring 1.8 metres for 75 kilos. His strength lies elsewhere though. Re-positioned at scrum-half, Parra became a leader in word and in actions. Much more experienced men than he, such as 36-year-old Pascal Peyron and 34-year-old Olivier Sourgens, followed orders. Raschi knew he had something special and signed Parra on a professional contract straightaway. Within just a few matches, Parra would be running the incumbent Mickaël Forest close, and the Irishman Prendergast, formerly of Munster, would have to be content with a few minutes of game-time here and there.

If his adult club career began early, so did his international career. At 19 years, two months and 18 days old, Parra became one of the youngest players ever to don the French shirt, behind Claude Dourthe, Jean Gachassin and Frédéric Michalak*. In Parra, the new coach Marc Lièvremont saw the face of the future. For his debut on 3 February 2008 he came on to the field for just a few minutes in the easy victory over Scotland (6-27) at Murrayfield. Three weeks later he was in the starting line-up against England at the Stade de France, forming the youngest 9/10 combination in French rugby history with François Trinh-Duc from Montpellier (21 years old at the time). The French public discovered a young man who was not frightened to shout down bigger men than he, and also one fully capable of fulfilling his kicking responsibilities. The next day it was not the 13-24 defeat that made the headlines but the confident display of the scrum-half. “It was an exceptional performance by Morgan, given he is only 19 years old and when you take into consideration the quality of the opposition,” enthused Lièvremont the day after the match. “He understood when he had to get the ball out. He kicked well and assumed his responsibility.”

At Bourgoin, Parra went through the depressing experience of playing for a club that played not to lose. The Bourgoin style of play was a thing of the past and like others of a talented generation – Yann David, Sylvain and Mathieu Nicolas, Jean-Philippe Genevois – Parra sought new pastures - more welcoming, more structured and more ambitious, although he did not forget his “family” nevertheless, joining up at Clermont with Julien Bonnaire, Julien Pierre and Benoit Cabello, three ex-Bourgoin players.

In Clermont-Ferrand, home of Michelin tires, the 2009-2010 season was a laboured affair at first. “Everyone seemed to forget he was only 20,” recalls Cabello. “On top of that, as scrum-half Morgan had to get to know the new playing system and all the combinations that go with it. And he was moving from a small family club to one with enormous ambition. More was expected of him.” Expectations he would fulfil, drawing confidence from his performances in the French shirt. Up until November 2009 however, Parra - still not the finished article - was not first choice (5 starts in 12 selections), finding himself behind Jean-Baptiste Elissalde (in 2008) and then Julien Dupuy (2009) in the pecking order. In January 2010, with Dupuy suspended, the door lay wide open and Lièvremont trusted his young protegé with the keys to the house for a tournament that would prove to be, match by match, a Grand Slam winning campaign. Morgan Parra finished the tournament as equal-highest points scorer with 61 points at an 82% efficiency rate (with Welshman, Stephen Jones), but more importantly he had left his mark. Parra kept the momentum going at club level for ASM, playing in his first European final and winning the Brennus Shield, a title that Clermont had been striving after for 99 years and more so for the last three years after losing three finals in a row.

Elected Top 14 Player’s Player of the Season in autumn 2010, Parra must now deliver. For the little lad from the Lorraine, who passed by Isère to become a permanent fixture in Auvergne, the 2010/2011 season proved to be more complicated than the previous one. Having underperformed, by his own admission, in the November 2010 tests (especially the trouncing at the hands of Australia), he found himself at the heart of an ageing Clermont team that was coming to the end of its shelf life (defeat in the semi-final of the Top 14). Competition for the French number nine shirt became more intense with the return to form of Dimitri Yachvili, the Biarritz player taking over possession in the 2011 Six Nations tournament. Yachvili was named in the starting line-up for the matches against England and then Italy but dropped out before the game in Rome meaning that Parra retains the predominant position he has held since 2010 (14 starts and 3 replacements in 17 possible games, included both games against Ireland in August 2011). Will Parra, the scrum-half by far the most utilised by Marc Lièvremont since taking up the reins in 2008 (19 starts), fulfill his leadership role during the 2011 World Cup, a competition for which he was logically selected?

* Claude Dourthe (Dax) earned his first cap aged 18 years and 7 days, on 27 November 1966 against Romania in Bucharest (3-9). Eight other less-known players have made their debuts before the age of 19. The Pyrenean Jean Gachassin first donned the blue shirt on 7 January 1961 against Scotland (11-0) aged 19 years and 15 days, Frédéric Michalak (Toulouse) first played for France on 10 November 2001 against South Africa (victory 20-10) aged 19 years and 25 days.

Morgan Parra intime et souriant

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