LE ENFORCER

France’s debutant prop was jailed for burglary as a teenager and once turned up to training with a knife wound. Today England face...

IF the buzzwords of ‘violence’ and ‘brutality’ around today’s match need bringing into perspective, then look no further than the story of France’s debutant prop.

When Montpellier signed Mohamed Haouas as a teenager, they made an agreement with the police that he would not return to the troubled streets of his crime-tarnished youth.

Haouas had served time in a young offenders’ prison for robbery, his passport had been confiscated and he was under curfew between the hours of 8pm and 7am.

He was the biggest kid on the streets, an enforcer who weighed in at more than 20 stone. The club promised to educate and home the youngster but occasionally he would slip back into his old ways.

Montpellier owner Mohed Altrad, who also grew up in poverty, recalls one such instance when Haouas arrived at training with a knife wound on his hand.

‘In many ways, it is a very nice story,’ Altrad told the Mail on Sunday. ‘ In France, 13 million people live in areas called quartiers where employment is about 60 per cent and there is a lot of poverty.

‘It is mainly people from Morocco, Algeria and Turkey and Mohamed grew up in one of these areas. His parents separated early and the rule in these areas is that you fight.’

Haouas even punched one of his own team- mates, South African Bismarck du Plessis, in a warm-up last year.

‘He went to jail several times,’ said Altrad. ‘Little education, little jobs. He kept fighting, stealing. The area has small flats where people hardly have anything to eat.

‘We knew that he had shown good things on the rugby pitch. We went to the police and committed to taking care of him. We gave him a room and an education on the agreement that he didn’t go to his quartier. Nevertheless, he kept going back at the weekends.

‘One Monday he came in with a very big cut on his hand. We asked him “What’s that?” and he said, “People were fighting in the square, I wanted to separate it and I was cut by a knife”. But now he has a child, a salary and he is married. He is settled. This match will be a nice moment for him.’

Gone are the days when France’s national team was made up of southern public-school boys who grew up on the expensive side of the Garonne River. The likes of Serge Blanco and Emile Ntamack stood alone in the 1980s and 90s. Nowadays, L e s Bl e u s a r e a reflection of the c o u n t r y ’s multi-cultural society.

Take Massy Rugby Club, a second division team whose ground is surrounded by high rises on the outskirts of Paris. They pick up athletes from the ‘ghettos’ and turn them into fully fledged rugby players. Four of their academy products — Sekou Macalou, Gabriel Ngandebe, Les t e r Et i e n a n d Cameron Woki — were named in Fabien Galthie’s wider squad for the Six Nations.

Woki, a 21-year-old flanker, is in line to make his debut from the bench today. ‘There is still a lot of untapped talent in France,’ said Massy director Morgan Champagne. ‘ Young guys from t he suburbs have qualities that other guys don’t: they don’t want to stay in the suburbs.

‘Life in the suburbs is a fight and sport is their ticket out. Now we have a lot more players coming out of the Paris suburbs. These guys are very fast. Bam, bam. It is a melting pot.’

Selection quotas at club level have resulted in more opportunities for young local talent, with the likes of Woki and Demba Bamba helping France become world champions at Under-20 level.

‘The environment has changed,’ said France coach Galthie. ‘ It’s good that you have players like Mohamed who e me r g e from more complex journeys.

‘You have the classic clubs in the South West but, over the last 10 years, there are strong places such a s Massy in t h e Pa r i s i a n suburbs.

‘The big change in rugby is now in the north, in Paris, in Lyon, Lille, Strasbourg. When I used to play 13 years ago, most of the first division was under the Garonne River in the south west.

‘For sure it is a representation of multicultural France. The origins of French rugby is moving.’