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Move over Napoleon: France has a new hero, he's twice your size and radiates primal energy: Sebastien Chabal, also known as the "Caveman", "Attila" and "Gun Cartridge".
Chisel-faced, thickly bearded and sporting shoulder-length locks, the 1.92m, 115kg rugby man has unleashed adulation in France similar to the frenzy triggered by Jonah Lomu when he burst on to the scene in 1995.
"'Chabalmania' is unstoppable," blared the daily Parisien after Chabal scored what it said was a try "worthy of Lom" in France's crucial 87-10 victory against Namibia on Sunday.
Chabal went on a 50m rampage and slammed the ball down over the line, like a giant confronted by pygmies.
He ripped England apart in similar fashion in a pre-World Cup friendly at Twickenham last month.
As when Lomu used to start a run, an electric shiver jolts the stadium whenever Chabal gets the ball.
French fans chant his name, some have special Chabal placards to wave and others wear fake beards and wigs in his honour.
Politicians, always keen to catch a (Mexican) wave, are starting to get the message.
"Il est mon chouchou [He's my darling]," Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot has said.
In a TV satire show Chabal appears as a cross between a Cro-Magnon and Hannibal Lecter.
On the websites Dailymotion and YouTube, his massive tackles on Chris Masoe and Ali Williams (which cracked Williams' jaw) during France's ill-starred New Zealand tour this year have notched up nearly 700,000 hits.
At Les Bleus' training camp of Marcoussis (dubbed "Marcatraz" by the players because of its punishing exercise routine), the team pump iron to a dance tune, Chabal, il va tamponner (Chabal's going to do a hit), inspired by a song on Zinedine Zidane's famous headbutt in soccer's World Cup final last year.
With a client offering a unique and instantly recognisable image, Chabal's agent is said to be in negotiations with Kellogg's, Cadbury and a cheesemaker for advertising deals. The starting price: ¬200,000 ($380,000) for a TV ad campaign.
An online fan club follows his every move, both on and off the field, dissecting his rugged looks and gravelly voice and, this being France, where philosophy is prized, exploring deeper reasons for their attraction.
"Why is Sebastien Chabal so sexy? It's because he embodies the myth of the strong man," suggests one of these self-described "Chabalistes", Muriel Tournadre.
"Sebastien Chabal is the antithesis of the metrosexual."
The hero worship is largely of recent date, though.
Some of those who screamed his name in Toulouse on Sunday may well have been in the same stadium in 2005 when the loose forward was booed off the pitch for a miserable performance against Tonga.
That was his last appearance in the national team until he emerged, reborn, in the second row, for the Six Nations tournament of 2007.
The French sporting press say Chabal, with 33 national caps at the age of 29, has consistently raised his game over the past three years, thanks in large part to the experience of playing in the English club league with the northern club Sale.
By all accounts, Chabal is the exemplary gentle giant, a man who speaks with unfailing humility and who adores his family.
He hates talking about his sudden fame and always says that whatever success he has had is due to the team as a whole.
Referring to a perilously high tackle by Namibian Jacques Nieuwenhuis that got that player sent off, he joked, "It's a good thing I've got my beard, otherwise I would have copped it right on the chin."
Chabal seems to be well liked by his teammates and one can search in vain for any hint of jealousy at his sudden stardom.
"Seb's popularity is really popularity for the whole team," says winger Vincent Clerc.
"This 'Caveman' stuff makes us all laugh. He's rather timid and reserved."
Chabal's wife, Annick, says he is crazy about their little daughter, Lily Rose, aged 2 1/2.
During the long training sessions at Marcoussis, when the team were closeted away from their families, Chabal set up a webcam so that his daughter could always see him in the evening when she had her dinner.
"When I think that people imagine that Seb deliberately set out to look like Attila the Hun, it makes me smile," Annick Chabal told Paris-Match.
"No one is more sensitive and withdrawn than him.
"No one's noticed that he started to grow a beard and let his hair grow when he began to get well known.
"In fact, it's a way of hiding behind a screen."
