Olympic Biarritz, a monument to French rugby stuck at the bottom of Pro D2, will be taken over by its former player Shaun Hegarty and his associates, the president of the Basque club Jean-Baptiste Aldigé announced on Friday. “This (press) conference aims to confirm with great pleasure and emotion the transmission of the BOPB to Shaun (Hegarty) and the people around him,” declared Jean-Baptiste Aldigé who took over the club with Louis-Vincent Gave (owner) in 2018.
After his professional retirement, Shaun Hegarty, 40, had set up a travel agency with another former “Galactic”, his friend Federico Martin Aramburu, killed by gunfire in March 2022 after an altercation in a bar-restaurant in Paris. He was present with him during the tragedy.
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The deed of transfer has been signed and the transfer will be administratively ratified by the extraordinary general meeting of the club at the end of April, specified the current president of the BO, who had announced to the players at the beginning of March his desire to sell the club for a symbolic euro. Shaun Hegarty confirmed for his part that he would be accompanied by his former BO partner Marc Baget and South African Flip Van der Merwe, who will be chairman of the club's board of directors.
Three points from a new descent
“I am convinced that he will be the man for the job to replace Jean-Baptiste, he is very recognized in the world of rugby,” declared Shaun Hegarty about the former Springbok, who finished his career at Clermont (2015 -2019). The club was in difficulty and we had to act, we could not let the BO go under.”
Relegated to Pro D2 in the summer of 2022, the club is not safe this season from going down another level, since it only occupies 14th place in the ranking six days from the end, with three lengths ahead of the first relegation, before their match of the 25th day this Friday evening at home against Aurillac.
Shaun Hegarty began his professional career with Marc Baget at the BO from 2003 to 2006, participating in the conquest of the last two national titles (2005, 2006) of the five-time French champion club with the golden generation of the “Galactics” (Jérôme Thion, Imanol Harinordoquy, Dimitri Yachvili…).