Asked on Wednesday whether this new status would change her pre-match routine, the 31-year-old Basque (54 caps) replied with a smile that "it (would) not change anything in (her) habits, quite simply".

"I'm very honored but it's only a passing cap," says the Stade Toulousain player, with whom she won the title of champion of France in June, the club's first among women.

Admittedly, she underlines, this responsibility "puts a little extra stress, but I try to gain height and focus on my role as a player. The rest will follow naturally".

Nevertheless: playing the opening match at Eden Park, the temple of rugby, which is also sold out (40,000 spectators), "it's sure that it's a lot of fun, it starts very very strong", confides the warm thirty-year-old, high bun on her head in life and "helmeted" during matches.

"Iconic"

"Chelemarde" in 2018, Céline Ferer is for all a "Great" -her nickname-, both by her height (1.80 m), precious for jumping into touch, and by the stature she has taken at the Bleues .

She combines "a gentle balance between this good mood, this enthusiasm outside and on the field, a ferocity and a strong commitment", underlines Thomas Darracq, the coach-coach, of whom she "is an emblematic player".

Les Bleues player Céline Ferer during a test match against New Zealand on November 20, 2021 in Castres Valentine CHAPUIS AFP / Archives

However, as a teenager, the native of Bayonne was far from being interested in rugby, which she only discovered at the age of 19 "thanks to a friend, who got her so drunk" that she ended up agreeing to accompany him to a coaching.

"No one played rugby in my family but it was love at first sight. Not for the sport itself - I didn't understand the rules - but for the atmosphere, the group... They spoke Basque and I met some great girls, it was great," she told AFP during the last Six Nations Tournament.

Her former coach with the "Neskak" of Bayonne, Jean-Matthieu Alcalde, evokes in Midi Olympique a girl capable of also playing third line, who "knows how to adapt quickly: it is an added value for a team. her position, she still scraps as much".

"Beautiful and Unique"

So much so that she quickly honored her first selection, in February 2015, while working in a decoration store, BTS management assistant in her pocket.

At the 2017 World Cup, no luck: she was injured before the semi-final.

Signatory in 2018 of a professional half-time contract with the Federation (FFR), she resumed her studies once recruited by the Toulouse Stadium in 2019 and obtained a professional patent "weightlifting-bodybuilding", thanks to which she is now a coach in a gym in the Toulouse suburbs.

Her retirement as a player, which she will take after the World Cup at the same time as scrum half Laure Sansus, she is therefore ready for it.

Nevertheless, she hopes not to see it arrive too soon.

"We savor every second that passes because we know it will be the last. Moments like that, we don't already have the chance to experience them every year, so we make sure it's beautiful and unique. “, she asserts.

Already thinking of farewells: "we take little photos to immortalize these moments, thinking that this may be the last time we will have the Rooster on our chest".

© 2022 AFP