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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