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Barbarians boss Eddie Jones has created a new position for Mathieu Bastareaud
By Josh Raisey
Ahead of their encounter with Fiji this Saturday at Twickenham, Barbarians coach Eddie Jones has created a new position for Mathieu Bastareaud, calling the former France international a "utility" player.
Jones joined in an interview with the 54-cap Frenchman on Tuesday to describe him as a “back and forward” after the former Toulon centre’s recent pioneering positional change.
The 31-year-old is likely to play at No8 for the BaaBaas this weekend against Fiji, a position where he has thrived so far this season for Top 14 leaders Lyon, who are five points clear at the top in the French league.
He joined Pierre Mignoni’s side on a short loan this summer after being overlooked by France head coach Jacques Brunel for the World Cup in Japan.
His loan stint is now over and he is set to move to the United States to play for Rugby United New York in 2020.
Saturday’s match at Twickenham will not only allow him to play before his move to New York, but it will give him the opportunity to further transition from the centre to the back row in a different environment.
It was an unprecedented positional change for a player of Bastareaud’s calibre, but one that could prolong his career. He has always had a physique that would suit a back row forward and it was inevitable that he would one day be unable to keep up with the outside backs.
This has proven to be a sensible positional shift thus far and it looks to have received the backing of Jones. It could even see some more players follow in his footsteps.
Such an announcement was originally seen as a bit of a joke, but Bastareaud has silenced many critics and will now have a chance this Saturday to exhibit his new positional change on the international stage.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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