International Rugby Players

May 30, 201114 yr

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May 30, 201114 yr

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Wales training, Cardiff

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June 1, 201114 yr

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* Frédéric Michalak has joined Super 15 clubs Sharks after leaving Toulouse with immediate effect

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June 2, 201114 yr

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Emotional rollercoaster for Trinh-Duc

Montpellier fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc feels his side's astonishing run to the Top 14 final was better than winning the Grand Slam with France.

The 24-year-old said their achievement in reaching the final against 17-times champions Toulouse at the Stade de France, was emotionally much more powerful than when the French beat England at the same venue to secure their first Six Nations Grand Slam since 2004. Trinh-Duc - like several of his team-mates - grew up in the Montpellier area. "To experience this with your club, this Montpellier side, builds plenty of emotion," Trinh-Duc he told AFP. "There is the rugby adventure that everyone has witnessed which is exceptional in itself.

"But behind the scenes, there is the human element involving meeting wonderful people inside the club and the ups and downs which we have experienced which makes it even more emotional. "It is more significant what I am experiencing with Montpellier than with the France side." Trinh-Duc - capped 27 times since being selected by France coach Marc Lievremont in the 2008 Six Nations - said the real strength of the side, who have beaten Castres and Racing-Metro in the play-offs, was their team spirit.

"My friendship with 'Fufu' (club captain and fellow French team-mate Fulgence Ouedraogo) is the best known," he said. "But there are a lot of other players at the club with whom I began with at school level and then in the reserves and now, we are in the first team and we are lucky enough to be playing in the Top 14 final! "It is both unbelievable and exceptional. There have been some really good moments, some less good ones, and we have lived them all together. "We know where we have come from, which gives us even more cause to be joyful."

Trinh-Duc, who made his senior debut for Montpellier back in 2005, said that the arrival last year of head coaches Eric Bechu and former France captain Fabien Galthie, who played under Bechu at Colomiers in the 1990's, had been the spark the side required. "Our mental approach had always been very good, there was an excellent spirit here even though we flirted with relegation last season," said Trinh-Duc. "But they introduced an ambitious game plan, a routine which allowed us to work both individually and collectively in terms of discipline, the strategy, the nitty gritty. "Now we are more proactive."

Trinh-Duc said that it also gave him satisfaction that those who had accused him of lacking ambition for not leaving Montpellier for a supposedly bigger club, like back row forward Louis Picamoles had done in moving to Toulouse, had been proven wrong.

"I was criticised a lot," he said. "I was in fact criticised for a lot of things but also for my loyalty to the club. "Today, I have no regrets for that loyalty. Next year we are going to compete in the European Cup, that competition that everyone two years ago wanted me to play in. "Now I am going to play in it and I am also going to experience the Top 14 final. "Therefore I regret nothing," he added with a smile.

Planet Rugby/Photos: L'Equipe

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