For 37 years, Bertrand Bourgeault has followed the news of rugby in the Ile-de-France region and the French XV for Le Parisien - Today in France.
In the front row to follow the epic Stade Français in the 1990s and 2000s, he quickly befriended an extraordinary player with an extraordinary personality: Christophe Dominici.
“The story begins in September 1997, remembers Bertrand Bourgeault, 66 years old today.
His nerve immediately seduced me.
No longer feeling at ease in Mayol (
Editor's note: the Toulon stadium
), he does not hesitate to go to Paris with Franck Comba, his lifelong accomplice.
I liked the way in which, completely unknown, he approaches Max Guazzini who confused him with Comba.
A real joke, this first contact that the great Max has often told me ”.
"He didn't want to be good, but the best"
The former journalist then explains how he fell under the spell of this explosive winger to whom no defense could resist.
“Very quickly, I was going to discover the talent of this carefree kid from Solliès-Pont (Var), who would become, over the seasons, the king of overflow framing.
And we took affection.
He was going to make Jean-Bouin (
Editor's note: the Parisian enclosure of the Stade Français
) his garden and be its darling with peroxidized hair and confusing hooks.
"
On February 7, 1998, at the Stade de France, he celebrated his international debut against England and took the opportunity to register the first of his twenty-five tries in Blues.
“I jumped from my chair for the first time, not the last… remembers our former colleague.
I had fallen under his spell.
A fabulous career was on the way ”.
And the journalist was not going to miss any of his pal Domi's exploits.
"Unpredictable, he was in the field as in life"
"He was capable on his own to change a meeting, adds our former colleague.
He didn't want to be good, but the best.
He was in constant challenge.
Always higher, further and stronger
was his motto.
Unpredictable, he was in the field as in life.
He had to be watched over like milk on a fire, he liked to put on a show.
"
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Off the pitch, Dominici was a man with a big heart.
“He was in the sharing.
For young or new, he behaved like a big brother.
Our ties were very strong.
He testified that to me in 2001, during the terrible accident of my son, Thomas, which made him quadriplegic.
Everything that doesn't kill makes you stronger,
he repeated over and over.
Since then, he never failed to wish her her birthday.
He is part of my family,
he told me.
"
Bertrand Bourgeault “always had the eyes of Chimene” for Domi.
He does not hide it and fully assumes that he sometimes lacked objectivity.
In 2007, when the tricolor winger was at the end of his career, no one imagined him, at 35, selected for the World Cup.
Bourgeault continues to rave about his friend, drawing the wrath of his colleagues.
In the end, Dominici is retained by his friend Bernard Laporte, then coach of the XV of France.
Bertrand Bourgeault (left) poses next to his friend Christophe Dominici (2nd right) visiting the Parisian with the Brennus shield rewarding the French rugby champion.
/The Parisian
Over the years, the two friends regularly evoke the drafting of the player's biography.
“It was agreed that I hold the pen.
And then, one day, we were having lunch at the Princes, in his brasserie.
Embarrassed, he said to me:
Bertrand, don't blame me, to confide in me, I preferred a person of the opposite sex.
Confession will be easier.
Bruised, I first accused the blow, before understanding it ”.
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Retired, the two friends have never cut the link.
“Even from a distance, I continued to follow and love him,” says the man who moved to Tours (Indre-et-Loire).
He was my sun, my idol.
I was very lucky to meet him.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank him for being in his circle of friends.
In my eyes, he will forever remain a monument, one of the greatest rugby players in the world.
"