Pau welcome last season’s runners-up Northampton in the Investec Champions Cup on Sunday, in the modest French club’s first appearance in the competition in almost 25 years.
A quarter-final loss in January 2001 was their last outing in the continent’s leading tournament and since then they have experienced the highs and lows of professional rugby in France.
The three-time French champions, known locally as “La Section”, reached the final of the second-tier EPCR Challenge Cup in 2005 before relegation from the Top 14 a year later. They eventually returned to the glitz and glamour of the first division in 2015.
Last season, the side based in the foothills of the Pyrenees secured their Champions Cup return by finishing eighth in the league.
“We’ve spoken about what it means to play in a tournament like this and how we want to represent ourselves,” Pau’s Australian fullback Jack Maddocks said this week. “I guess we are new to this competition, so we want to come in and make a mark.”
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Maddocks, now 28, joined Pau four years ago with the club, backed by French oil giant TotalEnergies, in a full rebuild.
Their promotion to the Top 14 had been marked by the arrival of big-name foreign players like ex-All Blacks Conrad Smith and Colin Slade.
Former France U20 head coach Sebastien Piqueronies came in as head coach in 2021, changing the focus to using talented French youngsters mixed with a sprinkling of foreign imports.
“I think that’s really paying dividends,” said Maddocks, who won seven caps for Australia in 2018. “When the groundwork was being laid, it’s really satisfying to see, the improvements that have happened in the club and the direction we’re heading now. It’s been great to be a part of that journey.”
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Maddocks is considered an elderly statesman among Pau’s backline, which includes wingers Theo Attissogbe and Gregoire Arfeuil as well as centres Fabien Brau-Boirie and Emilien Gailleton, all of whom are aged 22 or younger.
Gailleton is the poster boy for the current Pau generation, having already featured 12 times for France. But last week he was ruled out for at least six weeks with a shoulder injury.
“It’s a big blow for us. He’s a bit of a leader in the team,” Maddocks said. “He probably doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.
“He’s one of those players who, his efforts off the ball, you know, he does every little one percent at such a high level. It’s the one thing I’ve sort of noticed is that all the great players do that.”
Pau have warmed up for playing Northampton in the shadows of the snow-capped mountains straddling France and Spain with some scintillating league form, despite only having the Top 14’s ninth highest budget.
They have powered to second in the table with stand-out wins over leaders Toulouse and Champions Cup holders Bordeaux Begles. Last Sunday, they also put 50 points on Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle.
“We’re doing something right,” said former Waratahs and Rebels full-back Maddocks. “I feel like we’ve been building for this for a long time to take that big step. I feel like this year it’s come about that we’ve actually taken that step. But it’s not something that’s happened overnight.”
– AFP
Photo: Section Paloise/Facebook
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