Rugby: Mathieu Bastaraud will retire at the end of the season

Rugby: Mathieu Bastaraud will retire at the end of the season

He’s coming out the front door. Aged 34, former Blue Matthew Bastaroud announced he would retire at the end of the season on Friday night in Dublin after Toulon won the Rugby Challenge Cup Final 43-19 against Glasgow. “This will be my last award, and next week it will be my last in Mayol (RCT Stadium, editor’s note),” he assured the beIN Sport microphone after Toloni was crowned.

“I said that I came back to win the title with Toulon, and that I did not come to Ehpad, and I am lucky because I was able to win one last cup before withdrawing,” said the former French international (54 caps with Toulon). the Blues), who won the Challenge Cup for the first time on Friday after reaching the final twice in this European competition, in 2011, with Stade de France, and in 2012, already with Toulon.

He added, “I gritted my teeth for a year, because I told myself I wanted to get back on my feet.” “We are writing a new page in the history of this club with this group,” he said. “It’s great because this season hasn’t been easy, there have been ups and downs, there have been failures… We were united and in the end we won the title anyway. It’s very good, it rewards all the work of the staff and the team.

sheltering the idol

French rugby figure and idol of the port After his three European titles (2013, 2014, 2015) and the Brennus Shield (2014) obtained during his first visit to Toulon between 2011 and 2019, Mathieu Bastaroud returns to the club at the start of the season. After sustaining a serious knee injury in November 2021 while playing for LOU.

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He pitched in on Friday night during his team’s grand victory in the Challenge Cup Final, and has a final Best 14 home day, on May 28 against the Purdue Union Beagle, during the 26th and final day. season.

With XV from France, he played seven Six Nations tournaments between 2009 and 2019, winning a Grand Slam tournament in 2010. He also played the 2015 World Cup, finishing in the quarter-finals by the Blues. His first selection for France was in 2009, during a Six Nations Championship match against Wales.

His debut for the French national team was tainted a few months later, during a summer tour of New Zealand. Claiming that he had been attacked during the night, Mathieu Bastaraud returned to France, before recanting his statements. The case took a political turn, and the Prime Minister at the time, François Fillon, apologized to his New Zealand counterpart for the story.

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