Rugby World

Gabin Fever

E’S ONE tough hombre.” It is hard to imagine a bigger compliment from Shaun Edwards. The now France defence coach was describing winger Gabin Villière, a player who has had perhaps the most unlikely path to the top in a team that is full of them.

At 26, Villière is now one of the first names on Fabien Galthié’s team sheet and yet this time three years ago the highest level he had played in 15s was the French third flight.

It took a whistlestop spell in sevens, an unlikely move to Toulon and a global pandemic for Villière to get his shot at Test level. But now the opportunity has presented itself, he has seized it with the oversized hands that have earned him the nickname ‘Frodo’ from his club colleagues.

Wind the clock back to 2016 and it was under the tutelage of former England scrum-half Richard Hill at Rouen that Villière went from being a second-team replacement scrum-half to tearing it up on

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