Dimitri YACHVILI

Biog of Dimitri YACHVILI :

Dimitri Yachvili’s international career has been a story of incessant call-ups and recalls in the face of the strong competition he has had to contend with. He has earned 52 caps since 2002, but “only” 26 in the starting line-up. There have also been some yawning gaps, take the 2007 World Cup, for example. Nevertheless he has scored 318 points, making him the fourth-highest points scorer in French history. “I wasn’t holding my breath,” he declared, when in March 2010 he was recalled for the umpteenth time as injury cover for Michalak - who himself had been called up to replace Elissalde, a stand-in for Parra, Dupuy’s (suspended) rival - and Tillous-Borde, who was on the long-term injury list. Marc Lièvremont’s umpteenth choice, Yachvili? He played his part, however small, in the Grand Slam winning campaign (playing for 22 minutes against Italy), the second of his career after the 2004 campaign, and was then picked to go on France’s June tour. He was again included in the squad for the November tests, but as back up once more, on this occasion to Morgan Parra. Like history on a loop.

When Yachvili earned his first caps for France he found himself overshadowed by Fabien Galthié and Frédéric Michalak (nevertheless scoring 18 points in 2002-2003 against Italy and Wales in the 2003 Six Nations tournament, and playing in the unimportant games in the 2003 World Cup in Australia), and then he battled it out over four years, toe to toe, with Jean-Baptiste Elissalde (15 starts in 24 matches compared to 19 in 26 for “JBE”), and to a lesser extent with Pierre Mignoni. But it was the latter two who were selected for the 2007 World Cup in France. Yachvili had been dropped by Laporte following a defeat at Twickenham in the 2007 Six Nations tournament and a mediocre showing on his own part, despite being the hero of the three last meetings between the old enemies: 19/24 points in 2004, 18/18 at Twickenham in 2005 and 16/31 in 2006. He was also joint captain of the 2005 June tour.

Dimitri Yachvili may be a victim of tough competition at international level, but he dominates it at club level, in particular at Biarritz where he kicked into touch Julien Dupuy and Sébastien Tillous-Borde, both first capped by Lièvremont. “He has great hands,” Biarritz coach, Jacques Delmas, explained in Rugby Hebdo in June 2006, “and technically he has class.” “Yach” was the artist behind the French Championship win the previous year (37-34 against Stade Français after extra time), scoring the winning penalty in the 102nd minute, and 29 points in total, a record for the final. He scored 14 of the 19 Biarritz points in the 2006 European Cup final against Munster (lost 23-19), and registered 15 (out of 40) more in Biarritz’s second Brennus Shield win in a row against Toulouse (40-13), showing just what a good left footed kicker he is. Yachvili honed his kicking skills aiming through wooden posts in his grandfather’s garden and then playing football for OGC Nice, before, since 2004, being coached by Jean-Michel Larqué, ex-captain and player for Saint-Etienne football club.

Dimitri Yachvili is the son of Michel, a hooker or back-row*, capped 15 times for France and twice French championship winner with Brive in the 1970s, and the grandson of another Brive hooker and of a Georgian soldier who deserted from the Soviet army and sought refuge in the Limousin region during the Second World War. He played in, and lost, a second European Cup final in May 2010 against Toulouse (21-19), a match in which he scored 12 of the 19 Biarritz points. He is (at the end of December 2010) the fourth-highest points scorer in the history of the European competition with 565 points. “He’s a pest,” explains Delmas. “If you let him he would eat your shoe, laces, soles…” “He plays like a hooker,” adds Thomas Lièvremont, who was his captain at Biarritz. Yachvili is oblivious to pain, a hard-head, characteristics he forged while playing for PUC in the Fédérale 1 division between 19 and 20 years of age and then sharpened thereafter in the heat of the English Championship, competing with the international Andy Gomarsall at Gloucester. Today, he is Biarritz’s undisputed leader (signing in 2002 just after the club’s long-awaited (since 1939) French Championship win). At club level, then, Yachvili is fulfilled; at the level above, however, the story is patchier… up until 2011.

During the last Six Nations tournament, Yachvili, now a permanent fixture in the French squad due to his consistently high level of performance for Biarritz, ended up by being regarded as Morgan Parra’s equal in the eyes of the coach. So he “pinched” the number nine shirt off his young rival’s back for the match against England and was named in the starting line-up for the Italy game, but a bruised thigh ruled him out for the rest of the tournament. Yachvili, did, however, fulill his role as “the boss” in the quarter-final of the European Cup with Biarritz and then with a certain brio in the Top 14 play-off against Clermont playing opposite none other than Morgan Parra, who he looked to dominate. Unsurprisingly Yachvili has been selected in the World Cup squad.

* He is also the brother of Grégoire, who played professional rugby in France for Bègles-Bordeaux and Metro-Racing and earned 12 caps for Georgia.

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