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MARCOUSSIS - Forget Raphael Ibanez, Frederic Michalak and even Sebastien Chabal. Thierry Dusautoir could be the new face of French rugby.
When coach Bernard Laporte named his 30-player squad for the World Cup on June 14, he omitted the 25-year-old flanker but named him on his 12-man reserve list.
On June 21, Laporte recalled Dusautoir after Elvis Vermeulen pulled out with a slipped disc. Three months later to the day, Dusautoir will start tomorrow's (NZT) pool D game against Ireland.
"After the coach rang to tell me I wasn't in the squad, I felt really down because I thought I deserved a place," he said today.
"When he rang again to tell me I was in, I decided to lock all my doubts and complexes in a closet and to do everything to win a berth in the team."
At the time, Dusautoir had only three caps to his name, the first one against Romania in June, 2006, the second against South Africa during the same tour and the third in the first November test against New Zealand when France suffering a crushing 3-47 loss.
He was subsequently shelved and, when Laporte assembled a 40-player squad for the Six Nations, he did not get a game.
"I left all that behind me when I arrived in Marcoussis, I decided to enjoy myself and work hard and it suddenly clicked," Dusautoir said.
"The coach said everybody would have an opportunity to show his worth. I believed him, worked hard and it paid off."
Dusautoir started the second warmup game against England, was on the bench for the "friendly" against Wales and for the World Cup opener against Argentina, started against Namibia last week and will wear the No 7 jersey tomorrow.
Born in Abidjan where his father, a French soldier, met his Ivorian mother, Dusautoir was 10 when his family moved to Perigueux, in the Dordogne area. Judo was his first sport.
"One day, I failed a test for the black belt. It was a real disappointment and I was tired of training alone while all my friends were enjoying themselves as a group, playing rugby. I joined them," he recalled.
It was studies first in the Dusautoir family and while playing at Perigueux, then Begles and Colomiers, he went to university and became a chemical engineer.
It was only then that he decided to have a go at professional rugby. He moved to Biarritz in 2004 and won the French championship title with them in 2006.
"When he joined he was still a student but, after playing with clubs fighting for survival, he was already a true warrior," Jacques Delmas, the Biarritz coach in charge of the forwards, has been quoted as saying.
"In two seasons he became a complete player and for the 2006 final, we had to give him a start at the expense of Thomas Lievremont, who was an international player and our captain."
For personal reasons, Dusautoir decided to move to Toulouse at the start of last season. Guy Noves, the Toulouse coach, is also full of praise.
"Thierry is intelligent, thoughtful. He wants to learn, he pays attention to the smallest detail because he wants to be the best," he said when Dusautoir was recalled to the national squad.
"I'm not going to tell you he is Richie McCaw but he is on the right track. I have to declare an interest but I think he was France's number one flanker last season."
- REUTERS
