"It's a subject that packs!"
The chain of questions about his rebirth - or even just his birth - makes him smile.
Recalled to the France team on the occasion of the short-lived Autumn Nations Cup in 2020 where Fabien Galthié and his assistants had to compose without their usual holders, Jonathan Danty was able to seize his chance.
“We have a good workforce and as soon as there were absent executives, we were able to fill their absences.
Especially during the Autumn Nations Cup but also during the tour in Australia.
The collective takes precedence over the individual”
, he underlines.
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The three-quarter center of Stade Rochelais, launched during the 2016 Six Nations Tournament by Guy Novès, is lucid and honest when he looks at the path traveled.
“I realized recently that I had more selections in one year than in the last eight years.
It's my own journey, I have no regrets..."
And to add:
"At some point, I may have lowered my foot a little, that's what made I was not level.
Today, I am there and I enjoy it 100%.
So far, it's not going too badly, I'm still enjoying it.
We'll see the road is still long, it's up to me to do my best to stay there.
I love."
Wide smile.
After the 2019 World Cup, I gave up on the France team.
I thought it was over
Jonathan Danty
By leaving his cocoon at the Stade Français Paris for La Rochelle in 2021, he has completely revived.
Metamorphosis.
But, according to him, the real trigger took place when he was still in the capital under the orders of Gonzalo Quesada.
“Gonzalo's return to Paris
(in 2020)
did me good.
Before, I had known coaches who asked me to play a very restrictive game, even if that is one of my qualities.
I was locked into this style of play there.
Gradually, Gonzalo asked me to progress.
He told me that if I didn't progress, I wouldn't play.
I didn't have much choice.
And it worked pretty well.
Quesada is one of the few coaches who believed in me and thought I could do more than run into walls.
He wasn't wrong.
There are a lot of things that I have taken into account but it proves that it is never too late.
Jonathan Danty also acknowledges that he had never thought of such a return to the France team.
"After the 2019 World Cup, I gave up on it,
" he says.
I thought it was over.
At the time when the staff came to the clubs at the start of the mandate
(to meet potential internationals)
, I had not been seen.
From that moment on, it was over…”
We will go to Cardiff with our weapons to try to get a good result and maybe give ourselves the right to dream about the end of the Tournament
Jonathan Danty
But this pure product of Parisian training, passed by the ASPTT Paris then the Paris university club (PUC), did not give up.
He knew how to question himself.
"I said to myself:
'Keep improving, at least do it for your club.'
In the end, it went well and they changed their vision of the player I was and that allows me to be here.
It took a lot of effort, a lot of time too.
But in the end, it's for good times so I have no regrets.
»
At almost 30 years old, Jonathan Danty has only 13 selections.
But he still displays the freshness and enthusiasm of a 20-year-old.
Especially when discussing the major challenge that awaits the Blues on Friday (9 p.m.) at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
“There is excitement.
We move into a mythical stadium.
We are going to play against the defending champions, it adds spice to this confrontation.
We will go there with our weapons to try to achieve a good result and perhaps give ourselves the right to dream about the end of the Tournament.
Just to add a prestigious line to his list, which already includes a Brennus shield (2015) and a Challenge Cup (2017) with Stade Français.
