“He’s moody, tough, controversial. But he gets things done”
1 BERNARD LAPORTE
World Rugby vice-chairman ▲ Up one
Bernard Laporte was 26 years old and was heading for his hometown of Gaillac. It was July 1985 and the day was blisteringly hot, mid-30s. Even in his car the temperature was scorching. Maybe that was part of the reason he fell asleep. Maybe there were other reasons. What’s undeniable is that his car hit a tree and he was put in a coma.
He was taken to a military hospital where his doctor brought him grim news upon his return to consciousness. “Rugby is going to be complicated for you now, Bernard,” he said. It was a kind way of saying that his playing days were over. “It’s like he stabbed me,” Laporte recalled years later.
His playing days weren’t over, though. “I am risen,” he is on record as saying. The scrum-half defied medical science and psychological theory and returned to the field, physically and mentally
