Mon, Sep 10, 2007 page20

• France may have lost, but in Chabal they have hope

  THE CAVEMAN Diehard rugby fans, swooning Parisian women and even the president are pinning their hopes on a colossus with primal, rugged looks and flowing locks

  • THE OBSERVER
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  Of course they cheered when the band blasted out the coda to the Marseillaise, and when David Skrela's free kick soared between the posts, just as they howled when Argentina's Ignacio Corleto scored, catapulting France towards catastrophe on the big night.

  But the biggest whoop beneath the pale plane trees, open shutters, starlit sky and big screen came when a bearded colossus with wild flowing hair, weighing 115kg but carrying only 9 percent fat, took his position on the pitch after 59 minutes, 43 seconds and began piledriving into the Argentinian defense. Sebastien Chabal is the local hero here in Valence, idol of all France and the country's last best hope after Les Blues crashed to a 12-17 defeat in the fanfare game of the Rugby World Cup on Friday.

  They had converged on the Place de l'Universite "to see him as much as the team -- in this town, at least," explained Etienne Cedelle, among the first to arrive in the crowd of students, corporation street cleaners and metal workers like him. Many of them new to rugby, including Ignace Renaud, his attention caught by Chabal's Valence connection, "strength and intelligence," but frustrated that the super-sub had not played during the disastrous first half.

  

  France lock Sebastien Chabal runs with the ball during the Rugby World Cup opening match against Argentina at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis outside Paris on Friday. France lost to Argentina, but the French public have not lost faith in Chabal.

  PHOTO: AFP

  "He'll come on 20 minutes before the end," rugby fan Serge Moreau had predicted before kick-off.

  He was 17 seconds out.

  A simmering excitement and increase in volume accompanied each time the camera saw Chabal warming up on the touchline.

  "You can feel the frisson," the commentator said.

  Once Chabal was on, Eveline Hinault, a hospital secretary, had too many things to do. She had to look after her father and his Ricard glass, occasionally kiss her boyfriend Guillaume, uninterested in the game, and watch Chabal on the screen outside Longchamp's Tabac.

  "A real man, with great strength, but also sensitive ... Ooo-la-la!" she cried, flicking live ash dangerously close to the subjugated Guillaume's eye. "Look at this! When he ran against England, they were all falling off him. Tonight, every time he runs at them, three men jump on him!"

  And they chant: "Un homme, un vrai, un tatoue" (a man -- true -- tattooed).

  Valence's favorite son is a star, renowned first in Britain, then in his own country -- even if he did score the winning try against England at Twickenham this summer. Chabal plays for the Sale Sharks, who share a ground with Stockport County FC and whom he helped win their first premiership in 145 years of existence.

  Few, if any, sportsmen have more nicknames than Chabal. At Sale, he is "Sea Bass," after his Christian name. In France, he has been "Attila," "Rasputin," "the Anaesthesist" and "Hannibal Lecter," but of late only one has stuck: "L'homme des Cavernes" -- the Caveman -- after a headline published in New Zealand but relayed across France during a Test Match against the All Blacks: "The Caveman Cometh."

  French poster boys tend to be sleek and chisel-jawed. But what a different figure Chabal cuts, with his primal, rugged looks, flowing locks and monstrous, scrum-hardened frame. And those who think of rugby as a game of potato-faces need to look again: The gay version of the Pirelli Calendar features "the Stadium Gods," aka the French rugby team.

  On the Web, a constituency of French and British citizens call themselves "Chabalistes." Chabal gets offered parts in Parisian musicals, sings on TV and features among the puppets in the French equivalent of Spitting Image.

  He has been described as the "Cantona of Rugby" -- he too left southern France for rainswept Manchester and has the same brooding, cerebral gravitas behind that piratical brawn -- with his degree in management from Grenoble, his love of cooking and charm. He did get sent off for stamping on Wasps' Lawrence Dallaglio and spitting at another player as he left the field. The dichotomy works like magic.

  "I bring power and aggression, and they love it," he observes.

  Not that he was always like that. Beneath the big screen in Valence, a fan called Jean-Claude recalls that when Chabal left French club Bourgouin, he was "a silent type with short hair who decided to change his image," growing his hair like Samson as the best way to vanquish.

  Born in Valence, son of a mechanic, Chabal grew up in nearby Beauvallon, where a man called Alexandre recalls him at school as "a force to be reckoned with." He was attracted not by the game of rugby but by the camaraderie around it, and was duly spotted by Valence Sportif. Bourgouin picked him up after noting his vast hands and feet, and within a year he had made his debut for France.
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