Casting an eye down the Top-14 table, and it starts off in regulation fashion. Toulouse top – obviously – Bordeaux hot on their heels and Toulon, the club from the Côte d’Azur hoping to reimagine their galactico glory years, in third.
But, then, in the strangest of Top-14 seasons, where only eight points separate sixth from 12th, something strange happens. The name of Bayonne appears. Not Clermont, La Rochelle, Racing 92, Stade Français or any other French aristocrat; but Bayonne, the town in the French Basque Country, seven kilometres inland from local rivals Biarritz, with its population of just over 50,000.
Three years ago, Bayonne were in the Pro D2, scrapping it out in France’s second tier, one of the most gruelling domestic leagues in world rugby. Now, these Basque underdogs sit comfortably fourth – five points clear of fifth and nine ahead of the nearest play-off chasers. There are only six matches of the regular season to play, before the play-offs.
In many ways, the club’s upstart, above-their-means campaign is a perfect encapsulation of the craziness of French rugby. Bayonne have not lost once at home in either the Top 14 or Challenge Cup this season – with both Toulouse and Bordeaux already having come a cropper at the Stade Jean-Dauger – but it is not just form on their own patch which has resulted in a surge up the table. Other, significant forces are at play, too.
Bayonne’s recruitment, which will be bolstered further next season by the arrival of Laurent Travers from Racing 92 as director of rugby, has been savvy – and no one embodies that more than the former England centre, Manu Tuilagi.
When the Basque club announced that Tuilagi would be leaving Sale Sharks at the end of last season to ply his trade in south-west France, the announcement was met with a degree of suspicion. Everyone knew that Tuilagi, the centre with over 60 caps for England and another for the Lions, on his day had been one of the world’s pre-eminent midfield technicians. But everyone knew how prone he had been to injury, too.
That sentiment was echoed by Midi Olympique, the respected French rugby newspaper, who said the following in January when naming Tuilagi as one of the Top-14 signings of the season so far.
“When Bayonne signed Tuilagi, there were as many questions as there was fanfare,” it wrote. “Which player had the Basques just recruited? The star of the 2010s, the English midfield bomb who made centres tremble the world over? Or the more discreet, often injured player who went through the last few Premiership campaigns with a certain anonymity.”
After just six matches, the newspaper concluded firmly that Bayonne had landed on the former – and they were right to. After missing a few early matches due to injury, the 33-year-old has managed 15 straight league games in total for Bayonne this season, appearing 16 times for the French club.
The most club matches, ignoring the Premiership Rugby Cup, Tuilagi has ever managed in a season is 21 for Leicester in 2012/13, the year the Tigers won the English league and the year in which the Samoan-born centre featured heavily on a victorious Lions tour.
Tuilagi is already set to breeze past that tally this season but should Bayonne, as expected, reach the play-offs and even beyond, the veteran centre could come close to his career best 33 matches in a season, again in 2012/13, when he also played eight times for England and four for the Lions.
French medics have worked wonders
In short, Bayonne’s medics and their strength-and-conditioning staff have played a blinder, with Tuilagi on course to feature in the second or third-most matches in one season of his career. His involvement has not been bit-part, either; he has started at 12 in all but one of those 16 appearances for the Basque side this season, with Tuilagi already having played more minutes than in the 2023/24 season, when he also played five matches for England at the World Cup.
Sources in Bayonne have told Telegraph Sport how much of an impact Tuilagi has had this season. Perhaps not eye-catching and worthy of highlight reels, but composed, serene and solid. “He has had a superb season so far,” said one Bayonne season-ticket holder.
Should he continue and other big ball-carrying centres like Sione Tuipulotu and Bundee Aki lose either form or fitness, Andy Farrell could do far worse than select Tuilagi for a second jaunt with the Lions. Farrell is already going to be without Ollie Lawrence in the selection debate.
It is a long shot, and the selection of other France-based Home Nations players for the famous invitational side’s trip Down Under would be far more likely. But this has been an unpredictable French season, with Bayonne at the helm. Nothing, for either its team or its players, should be ruled out.
