King Louis takes a fall from grace
“I am not putting my club before my country. There is no question of my leaving the France team”
Long gone are the days when Louis Picamoles was enthroned by Northampton as The King. No crown and no sceptre, but right royal performances at his command.
All that remain are the memories of a Premiership he bestrode too briefly in his first and only season beyond his native France.
He was persuaded to return in the colours of Montpellier on a contract that would ensure the future of his young family.
And his Federation, too, were thrilled to see their sponsor and benefactor Mohed Altrad, the Montpellier president, splash out a transfer fee of more than £1 million to have him back home.
Now, in just a few months, France have turned Picamoles into a pariah by casting him out of their plans for next year’s World Cup.
It hardly seems credible the relationship between him and national team boss Jacques Brunel should have degenerated to such a degree that they exchange aggressive messages.
Difficult to decypher the actual motivation that has driven both men so far apart, but the April announcement by Picamoles that he would forfeit France’s tour of New Zealand in favour of an operation on a troublesome shoulder and his earlier participation in a scandalous night out with Six Nations team-mates in Scotland are the two focal points.
He was one of eight France players suspended briefly after leaving their hotel in Edinburgh in the wake of a defeat for a drinking bout that ended with street fights and a complaint to police of sexual assault by a local girl, who soon withdrew it.
But not before police boarded the plane ready to take the squad back to France and removed several players for interview.
Much to the shame of the Federation, the plane had to take off without them. However, the ban instantly imposed by Brunel on the players involved was of very short duration.
And the inquiry promised by the Federation to throw light on what had happened was soon closed.
Shortly before Picamoles and the Montpellier team he captained lost the Top 14 Final to Castres, Brunel made an extraordinary statement from New Zealand.
He said: “Louis Picamoles has wished to withdraw from the France team for the moment and concentrate on himself. As long as he does not show me the determination to go to the World Cup, I am not putting him on my list.”
In other words, Brunel is overtly saying the man in whom he had such faith was not entirely truthful about the need for an operation at this time.
That provoked an angry reaction from Picamoles on the eve of the Castres showpiece in which he voiced his concern about the way the Edinburgh incidents had been handled.
He said: “I am not putting my club before my country. There is no question of my leaving the France team, of saying that I am bigger than them or a load of things I am hearing all over the place.
“Especially from former players who allow themselves to say things without knowing the ins and outs.
“We will see what happens now, but I do not want to be the scapegoat for things which were not huge in Edinburgh.
“Things happened which hurt me in the way they have been handled. I have discussed this with the people concerned.”
By Bernard Laporte’s Federation, you wonder? Picamoles added: “I am not going into detail, but too many things have been said when it would have been easy to cut off the supply. I have a different idea of what collective sport is.”
Picamoles was not one of the two players, one with a broken nose and busted lip, the other with a gashed eyebrow, who blamed their injuries on hotel accidents. Just as Mathieu Bastareaud had famously done on a previous tour of New Zealand.
In other words, his only misdemeanour may have been to have a few drinks on a venture sanctioned, according to some, by Serge Simon, Laporte’s right-hand man.
And, as a 32-year-old family man, he may deeply resent being cast as a street-fighter or, even worse, a participant in a doubtful party involving a girl whose presence in a player’s hotel room was revealed by winger Teddy Thomas.
Picamoles was not the only France player to decline selection for this New Zealand tour on fitness grounds, but he is the only one publicly accused of being faint-hearted.
It cannot help his cause that France were pulverised in the first Test without him and beaten once again 26-13 yesterday despite a courageous show with only 14 men for much of the game.
There is clearly mountains of mistrust on either side of this bustup. Surely a time for Laporte to step in and bring some peace into his international affairs.
The French once reserved an unfortunate fate for an actual king called Louis. It seems inconceivable they should impose such a cruel cut on his sporting namesake.