Nicolas Depoortere will experience his first selection with the France team and even his first start, Sunday against Wales. A rapid rise for the three-quarter center of the UBB, who has always impressed from a very young age.
This is one of the main information of the probable composition of the XV of France : Nicolas Depoortere should honor his first selection with the great French team. The three-quarter center of UBB seems to have convinced Fabien Galthié’s staff and his performances since the start of the club season speak in his favor.
Trained in Gironde
Nicolas Depoortere is a pure Girondin. Born in Pessac, he grew up in Vayres but it was in the neighboring village of Izon that the future center began playing rugby at a very young age. Very close to his big brother, Jules, today captain of Lormont in Fédérale 2, he does not forget to return as soon as he can to his training club, where it all began. “VShe’s a guy who doesn’t take his head and keeps it firmly on his shoulders, says the eldest in the portrait that Midol dedicated to young Nicolas. He worked a lot to be here and he knows he still has to work a lot to achieve his goals. He comes to see me on Sundays when I play and when we both don’t have a match, we go to watch the Izon club play, where we trained.”
Debut against La Rochelle
It is on December 23, 2022 that the Top 14 discovers Nicolas Depoortere. It was during a UBB trip to La Rochelle marked by a Gironde victory at Deflandre. With the number 22 on his back, the talented three-quarter center played nine minutes. After this baptism of fire, his teammates gave him a little gift by deciding to shave his head. This is another particularity of the player, who in just a few years has already changed his haircut several times, going from long curly hair to a mullet cut. You will allow us to cast a modest veil over this hair choice.
For your first start in the championship, you have to move forward in time. On February 25, 2023, he started against Perpignan and played the entire match. A few weeks later, he scored his first professional try against Racing. He continued throughout the end of the season, taking his place on the bench until the semi-final lost to Stade Rochelais. Patient, young Depoortere? His former trainer Frédéric Charrier says: “OHe had been taken for training at the start of the season in preparation for a friendly match, for which he was not in the group. I felt very disappointed and he came to see me to ask for explanations. I told him : “Look, Nico, you just joined the group; be patient.” I took the example of Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who joined the group in 2021. I felt that he really wanted to play quickly. He had an opportunity and he took it and took off.”
Close friend of Bielle-Biarrey
Speaking of Louis Bielle-Biarrey, the two never leave each other. Formerly shared accommodation when they played in Espoirs, they now live five minutes from each other. Never far away, therefore, in rugby and in life. In addition to talent, the two share the same interests with a strong taste for PlayStation. The stress ? Very little for them. After Depoortere’s titanic match last weekend against Racing (two tries scored), Bielle-Biarrey returned to the Canal + microphone on the meteoric rise of his friend. “Nico had a great start to the season. At the time, we were already happy to play in U20 together, in U20 and now in pro. If we can do it in the French team, that would be great. But about that , it’s not me who decides.” A few days later, it gets there. As if it were obvious.
Depoortere remains on a major performance against Racing 92 during the 17th day of the Top 14. Icon Sport – Icon Sport
World champion with the Bleuets
He is also a world champion. Last summer, he won his first national team title against Ireland in the final of the Under-20 World Championship. Benoît Baby, his former coach at the Bleuets, recalls: “Nico took the time to train. He played in the 6 Nations Under-20 Tournament and several matches with Bordeaux-Bègles before becoming one of the charismatic leaders of our world champion team, then making a big start to the season with his club “A few months after this title in South Africa, he could become the second world champion after Posolo Tuilagi to be selected with the great French team (Bielle-Biarrey and Gailleton had been selected to prepare for the World Cup in France). also that Marko Gazzotti and Théo Attissogbe made express visits to Marcoussis to prepare for the Tournament.
More 13 than 12
If during the high-intensity training of the French XV, Depoortere wore chasuble 12 (Fickou remaining positioned as second center), he knows this position much less well. It’s simple, this season, he only played one match as first center during UBB’s trip to Castres. In his (young) career, he started only five matches in this position (including 4 with the France U20 team). Certainly, his extraordinary size (1m94, 96 kilos) offers him a wide range of play and can allow him to evolve in a powerful register, but it would be a shame to reduce him to this sole use. THE legendary Philippe Sella he confided to us, like Emilien Gailleton (behind in the hierarchy although called up earlier to the French team) “have this presence in the race, in the movement, in their ability to cover more ground which makes them impressive”, and keep them away “of the more classical register that we ask of Moefana”. It is clear that the young center does not have the profile of Jonathan Danty. It can, on the other hand, provide many other solutions to this XV of France who has been looking for himself since the start of the Tournament.
2024-03-06 19:02:15
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