Thibaud Flament wants to be champion of England with the Wasps before joining the Stade Toulousain.

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Robbie Stephenson / JMP / Rex / Sipa

  • Currently injured, Thibaud Flament hopes to be back to play the finals of the English Championship with the Wasps of Coventry.

  • The French second line, capable of playing flanker, will join Stade Toulousain at the end of his current club's career.

  • In just over a year, the career of the 23-year-old, who grew up in Belgium, has seen a tremendous boost.

When a rugby player changes clubs, he rarely lands in uncharted waters.

There is always this teammate with whom we evolved a few years earlier, this cross-colleague in the youth selection… None of that for Thibaud Flament, the “Frenchie” of Wasps de Coventry, who will soon be leaving one of the best teams. English to join Stade Toulousain for the next three seasons.

“I don't know absolutely anyone,” laughs at the end of the line the 2nd line of 2.03 m for 115 kg, also capable of evolving as a 3rd line wing.

It would take more to worry him.

Because if the adjective "atypical" is one of the most overused in the French language, it sticks without concern to the course of this 23-year-old globe-trotter.

Born in Paris, Flament grew up (a lot) and discovered rugby in Belgium, at ASUB Waterloo, then joined England after graduating from the baccalaureate, without forgetting a South American break.

The importance of always believing in your dreams‼ ️


U18 Champion in 2015 with Asub, Thibaud Flament has grown up since then 💪 4 years and a lot of work later, he turned pro at Wasps and has just signed at Stade Toulousain 👏 @ASUB_Rugby @WaspsRugby @StadeToulousain pic.twitter.com/n2ETE53kyR

- Sportkipik.be (@Sportkipik) August 20, 2020

“I studied business at Loughborough University, whose rugby club has five teams,” he explains.

The first year I played in team 5, then in team 3 the second year.

I went to Argentina for a year for an internship where I played in the first division [with Club Newman]. I returned to university as a team one then I was spotted by the Wasps.

"

A meteoric trajectory

We are then in June 2019, and everything will accelerate again for Flament: after two months at the training center, he joined the first team, with which he played 16 games, before being stopped like the whole world by the confinement, last spring.

"My goal was to play a game, I think it has been achieved," laughs the double meter, victim of a fracture of two metatarsals of the left foot at the end of August and currently in the recovery phase.

The first thunderous steps across the Channel of this very solid fellow, skillful ball in hand, did not go unnoticed in his native country.

“Around November, when I had only been on a Wasps team for two and a half months, I received an SMS from Ugo Mola [the Stade Toulousain manager] telling me that we should 'calls, that we discuss a little, tells the holder of a license in international trade.

I was in the locker room, I saw that and I said to myself: "There, it laughs more!"

A few phone calls later, the case was in the bag, despite approaches from Bayonne and Racing 92.

The Wasps, great lords

"I love this challenge to win my place, as I did with the Wasps," he says.

And the "Wasps" precisely, weren't they too stung to see Flament leaving for their victims of the mythical 2004 European Cup final?

Apparently not, according to the person concerned.

“I really appreciated the way it was handled.

The coach [Lee Blackett] told me that he understood the situation, that it was my country, that he would have liked to keep me but that he didn't blame me.

"

Before returning to France 20 years after leaving it, the revelation of the Premiership season has a job to finish.

“We are on a super dynamic, with big victories.

We are in the Top 4 [second before the reception of leader Exeter on Sunday, on the last day of the regular phase].

We intend to win the title.

"With a little luck", as he says, Thibaud Flament will play the semi-final of the championship of England on October 10 or 11, even the final on the 24 at Twickenham.

He will dive into the Toulouse adventure as soon as his British season is over.

Before aiming higher, at a second line position where the XV of France does not have a very supplied tank?

“Any rugby player wants to reach the highest level, replies the future Rouge et Noir.

But I already want things to go well in Toulouse.

We must not go too fast.

A specialist's word.

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