Until Monday, the horizon of the Stade Français was marked by a wave of departures.
The three-quarter center Gaël Fickou has already donned, for three weeks, the tunic of the rival, Racing 92, the center Jonathan Danty, him, prepares his bags for the club in vogue of the moment, La Rochelle, and Pablo Matera, the 3rd row of the Pumas has announced its next flight for the Crusaders, in New Zealand.
The flight of these internationals will be partly offset by the recruitment unveiled by the Parisian club.
With, in particular, a good catch in its nets. The New Zealand international center Ngani Laumape (28 years old, 16 caps since 2017) will indeed join the team of Gonzalo Quesada, currently eighth in the Top 14, this summer. The small but powerful Hurricanes player (1.71 m; 100 kg) knows he is not a first choice in his country. For the World Cup in Japan in 2019, coach Steve Hansen had chosen to do the preparation but finally decided to deprive himself of his services at the time of unveiling the official selection. Hansen had preferred Sonny Bill Williams, Ryan Crotty, JackGoodhue and Anton Lienert-Brown to him, leaving Ngani Laumape on the side to the surprise of New Zealand observers and supporters. He's been back among the All Blacks ever since,retained by new coach Ian Foster and he played two Rugby Championship matches in October and November. Too thin for him.
🆕✍️🇳🇿
The All Black @NLaumape center reaches the capital!
Welcome to Paris Ngani!
🤯🖤 # SFParis
- Stade Français Paris (@SFParisRugby) May 10, 2021
Laumape will be the headliner of the Parisian recruitment which has already recorded the signatures, also formalized by the club, of the Toulouse pillar Clément Castets (25 years), of the South African pillar of Nevers, Nemo Roelofse (25 years), of the third line and captain of Agen Romain Briatte (28), and of the English center or winger of Carcassonne Harry Glover (25).
"We are going to bet on players who will not necessarily be called up by the international selections", had warned the general manager of the Stade Français Thomas Lombard.
He kept his word.