We need Biarrtitz back to their best

SERGE Blanco, the finest full-back ever to grace the union game, spent his entire club career at Biarritz. So did the celebrated loose forward Michel Celaya, who won multiple Five Nations titles with France and captained them into the bargain.

Imanol Harinordoquy, Serge Betsen (known throughout rugby as the “Grim Reaper”) and Thomas Lievremont? There’s a back row to win you a game or two – and all of them made 100-plus appearances for the Basques. They’ve also given us threequarters to die for – Philippe Bernat-Salles, Teddy Thomas, Damien Traille – and a fistful (no joke intended) of formidable tight forwards, from Pascal Ondarts at the sharp end to Jean Condom, Olivier Roumat and Jerome Thion in the boilerhouse. As for scrum-halves, they once had the fabulous Dimitri Yachvili as their star turn. Enough said.

The fact that a team good enough to have won three French championships and reached a couple of Heineken Cup finals since the turn of the century finds itself languishing in the deadbeat half of the second tier is bad enough. Worse still has been their neardeath experience on the financial front, with the withdrawal of their owner Louis-Vincent Gave.

It is therefore beyond reassuring to learn that new buyers have been found, signings for next season are being nailed down and professional club rugby on the Spanish border is not being left solely in the hands of neighbouring Bayonne. Apart from anything else, the consignment of Basque derby day to the dustbin of rugby history would make us all poorer in spirit.

Whatever transpires over the coming weeks, Biarritz will not be a quick fix. But with current indications suggesting that they are at least fixable, the real Grim Reaper may yet be kept at arm’s length.