France U20s skipper Hugo Reus: 'We need to win for my village'

Whoever is in charge of the Cape Town tourism marketing campaign has missed a trick in not getting Hugo Reus on board with their promotion of the Mother City, as he knows the place as well as any local at this stage.

Four times he has flown south from France in the last 13 months, his involvement at the 2023 and 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship sandwiching the trips he made in December and April with La Rochelle in the Champions Cup.

“I’m here more than I am in my parents’ house,” he quipped, pulling up a high stool in the lobby of the French hotel. “I like Cape Town, like Table Mountain, the Waterfront. When we are here we can’t have so much free time, but I like the city.”

Reus was only 14 when France won their first U20 World Championship in 2018, but the team the 20-year-old is now captaining is just one win away from clinching a fourth title in a row, a sequence that had a 2020-2022 lay-off as the pandemic cancelled three editions of the tournament.

He lit up their play last year in South Africa, toying with Ireland in the final in Athlone, and has done so again this year to guide his team to this Friday’s final versus England at Cape Town Stadium. His efforts have been the epitome of fun rugby in recent weeks.

There has been some delightful, jaw-dropping handling. Check out his assists for France’s first try versus Spain and their second last Sunday against New Zealand. The first was a sublime no-look, out-the-back pass off his right hand, the second a delicate leap in the air to avoid the touchline and fling the ball inside off his left hand before landing out of play.

There have also been numerous sweet cross-kicks and the highlight of his 52-point contribution was the bizarre first-half conversion into a gale which he purposely kicked wide to the left so that it would curl around and brilliantly drop between the uprights. Superb.

“I am very proud of what we did during all the competition,” said the maestro, looking back on a run where an agonising 26-27, last-kick loss to New Zealand in the pool stages in Stellenbosch was avenged with a 55-31, seven-try spanking of the Baby Blacks last weekend.

“We don’t have too much time with the group so during the competition after a game, after training, we have more and more precision so it is better after a game, after training, it’s very, very good and I am very proud of our achievement and what we did in the last game.

“The group is good. All the group have good mates, all the people are friends. It’s important for our play. If you want to play good games you need to have a good group, a strong relationship between the players, so it's very important the relationship between us is very strong and we see that on the pitch.

“The crosskick was open during the last game and the crosskick will be open again in the final, so I hope we have the opportunity to put some tries, to play our game and play in the space with the crosskick, with pace. We just want to take the space which the defence gives us if the crosskick is a good decision it’s there.”

Reus and several of his France U20 colleagues are already adult rugby veterans following busy workloads in the 2023/24 Top 14. We all know that this league’s style of play is heavily invested in physicality, in suffocating the life out of the opposition. Age-grade level, though, is far less bruising and it’s safe to say that the out-half has been enjoying his final fling in the grade.

“Different type of rugby,” he smiled. “The U20 World Cup, the play is quick and the time without stopping is more important in U20 than in the Top 14. In the Top 14, the players are stronger, bigger, and the impacts are more important but the play at the U20 is quick, quicker than in the Top 14 so it’s different. It’s not the same rugby. We love this type of rugby and we try to put some speed on our game. The more speed the better.”

With their XV named for the final, Reus goes into the showpiece as one of four players who will have started all five games in a campaign where they have had multiple polished gems on view. “There are so many players who are very good. We have Mathis Castro (Ferreira), Joe Quere-Karaba.

“We have Barnabe Massa, we have Leo Carbonneau, Mathis Ferte, we have so many players who are very good who play in the Top 14, play so many times in the Top 14. We have a very, very good team and some players are not here like Zaccharie Affane, Marko Gazzotti, Leon Darricarrere, Theo Attissogbe who is with the big team [Fabien Galthie’s Test squad) so we have a very, very good team and it’s good.

“The difference is the clubs, the clubs want to play the young people. I think Mathis, Barnabe played 30 games this season so it’s better when we have experience and that gives us so much experience with so many of our players. When I play with Gregory (Alldritt), Uini Atonio, I learn as quickly as I can at U20, so it is better when we have more experience and the Top 14 is very good to learn.”

The fascination is that France came into this World Championship having stank up the Six Nations, losing all three of the home games and beaten 31-45 by the title-clinching England in Pau 18 weeks ago. Reus was on the team for that March disappointment, but numerous others weren’t.

“The politics of the U20 French national team is to use so many players during the Six Nations. They used I think 50 players during the Six Nations. At Pau we had only three days to prepare for that game so the English player had maybe three weeks.

“It’s hard to play a game with only three days to prepare so at the World Cup it’s a group which has more preparation. We have maybe four, five weeks to prepare for this competition so we know all the players and the staff and it’s better for us to play, it’s easier to play because we know each other so we have more preparation and that is more important.”

Last year’s glory in South Africa was life-changing for Reus. “Yeah, the title was a big achievement in my life. The media, the staff, the supporter, it’s different after. It’s different because now I know the feeling when we win a World Cup, so I just want to do it again. I think it’s a national pressure. I just want to feel this emotion again when we win, so we need to win.”

His home village of Lisle will be glued to the action. “No, they [my parents] can’t come for the final but last year they were here. This year they can’t come but it’s not a problem. They will watch the game in my little village in Liles and all the village will watch the final. We need to win for my village.”

When we spoke, Reus was unsure of his pre-season start date at La Rochelle, but he won’t take long off as he wants to be part of the conversation when Ronan O’Gara selects his team for the 2024/25 Top 14 opener at home to Toulon on September 8.

“The backs coach Remi Tales and Ronan O’Gara sent me a message to say it [the semi-final] was a good game of the collective and they said good luck for the final. I will go to the USA with my girlfriend (afterwards), and after just relax with my parents at my house, just relax before the pre-season with La Rochelle.

“I don’t know really the exact (start) date. I hope I have two or three weeks to rest. I don’t know. I want to be there for the first game, so I don’t know. I will have to ask Ronan O’Gara how many weeks I will have.”

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