He had just made his debut at Twickenham, in the lair of English rugby.
We were playing the 61st minute of the heated and indecisive European Cup final between Toulouse and La Rochelle - finally won by the Rouge et Noir - when Paul Boudehent, the 3rd line of the Maritimes, made one of his dreams come true and took the place of his partner Kevin Gourdon.
But it had barely come into play that the dream turned into a nightmare for the young La Rochelle, 21 years old.
💛🖤 pic.twitter.com/xd6Xx6YvNR
- Stade Rochelais (@staderochelais) May 22, 2021
Just seconds after coming into play, on his first ball, in an aerial fight with Matthis Lebel for the recovery of a kick from Kerr-Barlow on the opposing 40 m, Boudehent fell heavily to the ground. If there is no fault on the part of the Toulousain, the third line of La Rochelle remained long stretched out on the lawn. The shoulder injury seemed serious enough that the player was evacuated by a cart, replaced by Thomas Lavault. Barely started, his final was already over. This twist of fate is not the first to strike the Boudehent family since Pierre, the eldest of Paul, is a regular in the infirmaries and remains for two almost blank seasons.
This injury is a blow to his partners in La Rochelle, already reduced to 14 since the 28th minute, after the expulsion of three-quarter Fijian center Levani Botia, guilty of a dangerous gesture on Maxime MĂ©dard. The Maritimes will not recover. Despite a fine last minute of the game, they will not be able to reverse the score. At the end of a long undecided final, Antoine Dupont's partners win (22-17). Eleven after its last coronation, Stade Toulouse won its fifth European title since the creation of this competition after those of 1996, 2003, 2005 and 2010.