"He's a great Top 14 hooker (...) Maxime Lamothe will have to be counted on in future years for French rugby".

By pronouncing this sentence last week, his trainer and former hooker Julien Laïrle did not think so well.

It was just before the injuries suffered this weekend by Rochelais Bourgarit (knee, absent for two to three months) and Toulouse Mauvaka (broken finger, absent for more than three weeks) which upset the hierarchy of French N.2 , three weeks from Italy-France.

Hitherto behind Toulouse Julien Marchand, Castrais Gaëtan Barlot and these two injured, a door may have opened faster than expected for the U20 world champion in 2018, who will celebrate Saturday in South Africa his hundredth appearance with the pros (84 Top 14 matches, 15 in European Cups).

At 24, Lamothe, who went through Bayonne on loan to get playing time in 2019-2020, has become a real UBB leader this season.

"He has changed, he has really evolved", confirms Laïrle.

"It's important because he has a key position, he's on a backbone, (positions) 2-8-9-10-15. We had asked him to take a little more thickness in the group, he's doing it."

He nevertheless "needs to adjust his consistency in throwing", underlines his trainer.

Complete hooker, modern and active, Lamothe distinguishes himself from his competitors by his mobility and his perpetual excesses of function.

"Regularity comes first"

Last season in Montpellier, he made an impression by grilling the entire Hérault rearguard to score in a corner, after an oblique run of 50 meters, with a hook on Paolo Garbisi and resisting the tackle on the shoulder of Anthony Bouthier.

Maxime Lamothe the Bordeaux hooker ball in hand during the Top 14 match between UBB and Montpellier Herault Rugby at the Chaban-Delmas stadium in Bordeaux, December 30, 2022 © ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP / Archives

Beyond the "50-22" that he dares to try and even succeeds, as against the MHR recently, Lamothe does not hesitate to jump under opposing referrals or under candles, like a three-quarter, like a reference on the subject to his position, the former Irish international Keith Wood twenty years ago.

International scrum half Maxime Lucu, who has been rubbing shoulders with his competitors at Marcoussis for two years, thinks him "very close" to the selection.

"He doesn't have a lot of things to change, he explains. He misses stringing together big matches for 10, 15, 20 matches. Regularity is what matters in the high level and it is what the staff of the France team look at. The better you are at a club, the more you have a string of good matches, the more matches you are likely to play in the France team or at least to be called up. will smile one day.

And why not at the end of January, with this internship planned in Capbreton with the Blues, or later this fall?

"It's a dream come true, a World Cup in France in 2023. Who wouldn't want to play a World Cup in France in 2023?" Said the interested party at the start of the season.

"But for now I prefer to focus on UBB, play well and help the team win. We'll take it step by step."

© 2023 AFP