Fabien Pelous is one of just three men in the post-war era with four Grand Slams to his name – a feat that is all the more impressive for a late bloomer whose first love was football.
France’s all-time leading appearance holder with 118 caps, Pelous made his Championship debut in 1996 before helping Les Bleus to clean sweeps in each of the following two seasons, as well as 2002 and finally 2004 as captain.
That puts him in exclusive company with Jason Leonard and long-time teammate Olivier Magne as the only four-time Slam winners since the Second World War.
And yet for Pelous, it was the round ball that first caught his eye before turning to rugby as a teenager.
“I started playing rugby at 13,” he recalls.
“I had always played football before then. I was from a little village next to Toulouse (Gibel) and there was only football and no rugby. There’s rugby now!
“Then I remember the first feelings when I went onto a rugby pitch and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.
“It went very quickly, at 14 I was in Sports-Etudes and then it went from there.
“Even so the Five Nations used to be a big moment for us. We would all watch it on TV. It was the big game on the Saturday afternoon.
“Serge Blanco was the man. He was the icon of rugby. When I started watching he was the person we expected to do something exceptional.
“At the time I didn’t actually play, so I didn’t know I was going to end up being a second row and that I wouldn’t quite have the physical attributes of Blanco.”
Despite his late start, Pelous enjoyed a rapid rise and got his first cap in 1995 at just 21 years old.
A year later he was making his Championship bow against England at the Parc des Princes, with Les Bleus having lost seven straight games in the competition to their cross-Channel rivals.
While they had beaten the English in the third-place play-off at the previous year’s World Cup, this 15-12 success was a major stepping stone with Thomas Castaignède memorably celebrating his winning drop goal by sticking his tongue out.
He said: “Since I’d been watching rugby regularly, France hadn’t beaten England in the Championship and on our first game against them, our generation, we managed to beat them. We were proud to have achieved that.
“I always liked the traditional nature of the Championship. It’s part of rugby history and so I loved playing those games with the match itself, but also the reception after the game in a tuxedo. It was something I really appreciated. It gave you the chance to write your own page in rugby history.”
BACK-TO-BACK SLAMS Pelous certainly wrote his name into the history books, first in 1997 for what was a fairly unexpected Grand Slam.
A decade on from the last French clean sweep, the turning point in this Championship was against England – as was often the way.
Under the cosh at Twickenham, the French were able to hang in for as long as possible before turning the tables on their great rivals in the second half.
Pelous recalls: “It had been a little while and it came out of the blue in some ways. We had the third match in England where we were outplayed for a half.
“Then they faded a bit physically and we came back to win the game. It felt like we were hanging onto the branches but that was the strength of the team.
“We could force a knock-on or make that last tackle to hang in there. We did that with this generation and it earned its reward.
“We beat Scotland in the final game with a fantastic performance. It was a crowning moment and for the young generation we didn’t really realise. We had arrived, we won, and we didn’t necessarily realise what we had achieved.
“We found out later that it wasn’t always going to be that easy.”
If the 1997 was a surprise, a year later France backed it up with a brilliant campaign that was capped off by a magnificent 51-0 win over Wales.
With the game played at Wembley, Pelous was able to go back to his football roots, and as Castaignède pulled the strings, Les Bleus romped home.
“It’s for the legend,” he added.
“We were playing at Wembley! It’s a legendary stadium, not just for football but for sport. To play there against Wales for a Grand Slam and to play the way we did. We were in a state of grace that doesn’t happen very often. It felt like we were going twice as fast as them. It was the perfect match.
“The Grand Slam in 1998 was a lot more controlled. We had a team that really understood its rugby and with a lot of attacking talent.” TURN OF THE CENTURY London was to be a happy hunting ground for the French in the late 1990s, it was at Twickenham that Pelous and co stunned New Zealand in one of the great World Cup matches.
By 2000 there had been a change in coach with the arrival of current FFR president Bernard Laporte, who named Pelous as his captain until 2001.
While the first couple of seasons were not easy, France were back on top of Europe by 2002 with another Slam, the first since Italy’s arrival in the Championship.
That was despite England’s emergence under Sir Clive Woodward but for Pelous, that French team was the strongest he was involved with.
He said: “In 2002, I don’t think we were just competing with England, we were at their level if not ahead. We had a team that was the best I played in. Certainly in terms of potential. We had quality all over the pitch.
“The French team is one that plays a lot on emotion so when we’ve had a run of wins and the Grand Slam is there to be won, we seem to be able to go and get it. We had good players and when we tried things, often it came off.”
They completed the Grand Slam with another brilliant performance – this time Ireland had no answer at the Stade de France.
There will always be some regret that the following year the French could not go all the way at the World Cup, but they responded to that with a fourth Grand Slam for Pelous and Magne in 2004, a first with the lock as captain.
Fittingly it ended with a win over the English in Paris.
He recalls: “My memories of the England game are not as vivid but there was the feeling that we were in control.
“The fact I was captain was never something that I placed too much importance on. I didn’t feel that one was more special than the others. I was proud, but more for the team than the fact I was captain.
“For me it’s the emotional side that stays with me. The trips with the supporters, the after-dinner receptions. By the end you aren’t taking a step into the unknown. Having had some success, we would have happy memories when we went back to the same hotels and the same places.”
THE NEXT GENERATION Pelous called time on his career in 2007, having won another Championship title the previous year to finish with five in all.
His 118 caps remain the most of any French player, and in 2017 he was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame.
Since retirement he has worked with the France Under-20s, as well as being manager at Toulouse.
That has allowed him to take a step back when it comes to watching Les Bleus, although it seems that his 15-year-old son Louis, who is now on the books at Toulouse, struggles to do the same!
“Sometimes I get to the games, sometimes I watch them at home. And on occasion I’ll record the game because I’m spending time with my family but I try to watch them live as much as possible,” he added.
“I watch in a fairly detached way, more from a technical standpoint than emotionally. It’s not too hard, but the emotional side is more for my son who will watch and get frustrated and I try to find the technical reasons.”
With the likes of Damian Penaud, son of Alain, Romain Ntamack, son of Emile, and Louis Pelous, France are not short of second generation rugby players.
For Louis, he could hardly ask for a better mentor than a four-time Grand Slam winning father.
