France winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey was on Wednesday enjoying a double accolade after he was named as the fans' player of the 2026 Six Nations rugby union competition and saluted for scoring the best try of the campaign.
The 21-year-old claimed 65 percent of the fan vote to see off England’s Tommy Freeman, Scotland’s Blair Kinghorn and the 2024 winner Tommaso Menoncello from Italy.
Bielle-Biarrey joins his skipper Antoine Dupont as the only Frenchmen to have won the prize of best player since it was first awarded in 2004.
He was presented with his prize by his Bordeaux Bègles and France teammate Maxime Lucu.
During the 2026 competition, Bielle-Biarrey became the first player to score eight tries in a single edition of the Six Nations which was created in 2000 when Italy joined France, Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland for the annual rugby competition.
Bielle-Biarrey's pyrotechnics in the five matches in February and March eclipsed the feats of Jacob Stockdale in 2018 for Ireland.
"I was thinking: 'This try is really good for us' because we were not in a good place in the game," he said of the try against Scotland that allowed him to surpass Stockdale's record.
"We'd had a bit of trouble in the first-half so I was happy to score and get closer to the Six Nations title."
Mark
"I'm very happy to have won the trophy and that people have voted for me," added Bielle-Biarrey.
Collecting a high pass on the left wing, he ran a few yards and then kicked the ball behind the two players who were coming in to tackle him.
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