Julien Bonnaire, the greatest CSBJ rugby player, is the most famous. Statistics don’t lie, as they say. Bourgoin-Jallieu’s third wing line has 75 selections in the French team. This is more than Lionel Nallet (74) Morgan Parra (71) Pascal Pape (665), Pascal Pape (62) and Sebastien Chabal (62) among other holy sky and garnet monsters. Bonnaire, who is the author of 122 matches at the top level for Bourgoin has also 191 sheets for ASM Clermont Auvergne where he is considered one of its greatest players.
His record speaks for himself, with four Six Nations Tournaments, including one in 2010 Grand Slam, as well as four Six Nations Tournaments. He was also the Champion of France with ASM in the same year and he won a national title with Lyon Pro D2 (2016). If the Blues hadn’t failed in any way to win the golden William Webb Ellis cup, which rewards the world champion nation, his glory in 2011 would have been greater.
Marc Lievremont was the coach of these French loser in the final against New Zealand. “Julien, Mr. Rugby, is very talented, has an amazing register, and amazes me with the way he slaughters and shows generosity. It’s simply amazing. His mentality, aside from the pitch makes him an equally valuable person.
Lievremont touches upon one of Julien Bonnaire’s secrets. The Berjallien has extraordinary physical characteristics (1.93m; 95kg) and moral values. He learned these skills, first in judo, then in tennis. Bonnaire confided in our columns that he played tennis from 10-17 years old before he started playing rugby. You must be able to switch quickly to the next action in this sport. This helped me throughout my entire career to question, take responsibility, and learn from the mistakes of others. Here you can see the legends. They are able raise their standards to remain successful.
Bonnaire has tried to live by this precept throughout his twenty-year professional career. Pascal Pape, his teammate from CSBJ 1998-2006 and later with the Blues for eight seasons, said that “Playing with Julien meant being calm.” Even though he was having bad matches, which was not often, he never seemed panicked. We also felt that he didn’t seem to be upset by losing. He was a master at it. He understood how to get tall, and put things in perspective. He didn’t ask many questions, which allowed him to get far. He did everything instinctively, I believe. There was also work involved.
His change of position was the first problem for this high-flying flanker. He is also a great touch jumper. In his early days at Saint-Savin as an openback or fullback, his parents, butchers-charcutiers, had moved to Saint-Savin. Julien Bonnaire was promoted to third line in 1998. On the inspiration of Michel Couturas, the legendary trainer of that time, Julien Bonnaire arrived at the CSBJ. “Julien must’ve had two years of rugby before he arrived from Saint-Savin,” Pape recalls. It was a lot of bones, but it was painful. We felt that he was gifted. He had feet and hands. He was athletic. Couturas wanted it because rugby was changing, and you needed slender forwards like Patrick Tabacco to win the keys. We did not have this historically in Bourgoin. Bonnaire was able to reach the top because of this brilliant idea.
After a brief stint as a coach for the French sideline team, he is now thriving at 43 in the catering industry, close to his home. Pascal Pape is the CSBJ’s sports director. He said that he doesn’t want to be operational in rugby. He sees me regularly, he is passionate about his work and it’s going well, so he’s 100% into it. He is a keen follower of rugby but does not see himself doing so on a daily basis.
Perhaps he will return to it someday. Perhaps at CSBJ. If he does, it will be at CSBJ. Instinct.
Your career at the top
