Montpellier (AFP)

From Pro D2 to the Blues in half a season: the back of Montpellier Anthony Bouthier took the emergency staircase of the amateur world to reach the international level and apply for a starting position for the opening of the Six Nations Tournament against England, Sunday.

Former mason, he built his own trajectory, on the fringes of training centers and marked trails. At 27, he is outside the door of the France team, which is itself rebuilding its foundations.

"If I'm lucky enough to be there, it will be really unexpected," he breathes. "It is sure that, a Crunch, everyone wants to play it. Especially in France, in a sold-out stadium ... it makes you want to give everything".

Anthony Bouthier arrives from beyond his own dreams, from rugby before, from the amateur world he meets until his 22 years and his impromptu departure for Vannes (Fédérale 1).

Until then, the kid from Pouillon (Landes), where the former international glory Jean-Pierre Bastiat is also from, plays in his village, then two years in Dax, Reichel and Espoirs with an amateur license.

A Sunday rugby player, he has had fun since he was 15, on the sidelines of his job as a tiler-mason.

- "I had a whole other life" -

In Brittany, with a semi-pro status, Bouthier works and plays at the same time, "without taking the lead": Anthony is someone very, very simple. He is a bon vivant, he likes to share simple moments. Everyone appreciates it, "says his former Breton partner Julien Le Bail.

Bouthier escorts the climb of Vannes in Pro D2, even participates last year in the final phase, until Montpellier comes knocking on his door.

"Of course I don't have a conventional course, but I've been pro for five years, even if it was in Federal 1 or in Pro D2. Five years ago, I had a all other life. It's new to me, but I'm going to get to the page quickly, "he said, as if he was taking charge of his destiny.

"Like Vincent Rattez, he showed all his qualities in Pro D2. When we feel that these players, especially three-quarters, are efficient and regular, they are often the revelation the following season", breathes to the AFP Montpellier coach Xavier Garbajosa.

From Vannes to Montpellier, he swallows the step of the Top 14, enters the landscape with a natural as refreshing as a disconcerting maturity.

"We all dream of playing at this level. I got there little by little," said Bouthier recently. "In Vannes, it was already a big walk. So in Montpellier ..."

Under the authority of Garbajosa, former back of the Blues, he slips into the skin of an indisputable holder at MHR, at the expense of more experienced players. It becomes a safe bet.

- "A kid who stinks of rugby" -

It follows almost all the matches (17, with 6 tries), as it is inserted, air of nothing, in the three-quarter line.

"He's a kid who stinks of rugby, gets it fast, has good + skills + (individual techniques, editor's note), attacks the line and displays an irreproachable state of mind. He did some bullshit, but he gained confidence of his peers. He's a real rugby player, "praises the MHR coach.

"He is even an important guy in our system. Holder or replacement, rear or opener, he always brings something. He fully responds to the idea that I am playing rugby," insists Garbajosa, who made his Lawyer with the new coach, Fabien Galthié.

"Basically, I was not in the 75s (players followed by the Blues staff, editor's note), but the Montpellier coach helped me get there," confirms the Landais.

The only professional back with Toulousain Thomas Ramos in the enlarged group of 42 Blues players present in preparation for the Tournament in Nice, Anthony Bouthier could start against the English.

At the age of 27, at the start of his career, he has before him an international horizon. Garbajosa concludes: "He knows where he's coming from, he knows where he's going".

© 2020 AFP