Biarritz linchpin ready to rumble

RUGBY: Gerry Thornley talks to backrower Thomas Lievremont, who has a healthy respect for Saturday's opponents Munster

Thomas Lievremont has showered, changed and is sitting in the corner of the Biarritz dressingroom closest to the door. Hence, most of the traffic is coming past him, and two of the interlopers are his striking young boys, Luca, who is four, and Hugo, who is seven.

Lievremont is one of seven brothers and one sister, and all have or do play rugby. Many of his Irish opponents would testify that his brother Marc (who won 25 caps for France) is one of the toughest, hardest players they've ever faced, and if Thomas isn't as obviously abrasive, he's very much a warrior-like backrower too.

Two others are still playing and his sister was also on the victorious French women's championship team.

"My father was more of a soccer player but he was also in the military and was stationed in Perpignan, and the best rugby school was the best way of growing up, so he put the first (Marc) into the rugby school. He enjoyed it, so we all followed him and it became a passion for our family.

"When I started rugby it was only for our enjoyment, it was only for our friends, to enjoy playing. I did not know it could be professional one day. But now I'm living my passion, it's a very, very nice way of life.

"And it's nicest when you can win, or when you play in the final of the French championship or in the final of the European Cup, and sometimes for the French team, of course it is a great way of life."

You would think, therefore, that Lievremont would be happy for his children to follow suit, but actually not so.

Revealing a very protective side, the Biarritz captain says: "One is playing rugby but I would prefer him to play judo. I think it will be more difficult to play rugby because he has a name.

"For the boys it is not easy, that is why he is not playing in Biarritz. He is playing in Englet, because it is easier for him."

He could probably have done without an Irish interloper obliging him to speak in English but, and apparently this is typical of the man, he is patient, pleasant and helpful.

He is, by all accounts, a highly regarded person as well as a player, noted for his honesty and straight-talking off the pitch as much for his leadership from the front on it.

And Lievremont, absent in the semi-final win over Bath, was very much back in harness in last Friday's facile win over Montpellier, taking the game to Biarritz's half-hearted visitors, making a host of ball carries and decisions on the ball, before Patrick Lagisquet withdrew him just after the 50 minute mark. Lievremont is that important to Munster's opponents on Saturday.

"For me, Thomas is our most important player," Martin Gaitan tells me in the Hotel au Bon Coin, noted rugby landmark and home to the injured Argentinian centre.

"When he is playing, we are a different team. And we are not the same team when Thomas is not playing."

Lievremont admits the Montpellier match had little or no relevance to the kind of opposition Munster will provide.

"It will be more close, it will be more stronger. Munster is a very, very good team.

"Their forwards are very good and their number nine and 10 have been playing together for many, many years, since they were children. We know Munster are a big team in Europe and so we are not surprised to see them in the final."

Reared a Catalan, Lievremont says he loves the Basque way of life and culture, and when he retires hopes to remain living here. Biarritz also helped rejuvenate his French career.

An integral part of the Les Bleus, he fell off Bernard Laporte's radar, but where normally a player might dutifully trot out some clichés about how he's adapted his game, Lievremont states matter-of-factly: "I think it's because the French coach Bernard Laporte, when he arrived as the French coach he was not happy with me. I do not know why, and I still don't know why," says Lievremont with a smile and a gallic shrug of the shoulders.

"Then he picked me because he had nobody else. He was not confident with me but after I came back last year after a good season he seemed to be happy with me so I will see for next year," he says, not exactly sounding terribly confident of his future with Les Bleus.

Nor does he put it down to improved fitness levels or adapting his game in any way.

"No, I don't think so. Perhaps I have more experience at number eight. Five years I had a good career and perhaps I could have had more selections on the French team, but I don't care, I am happy with what I have done."

Lievremont will be 33 later this year, and 34 during the next World Cup on French soil.

"It is only one year away but first we have to finish this season well with Biarritz and of course if I could play in the World Cup in France it would perhaps be a dream."

You sense he has more pressing things on his mind, notably this coming Saturday.