"The Duke" Will Be Personality Of French Rugby Team

Press, Volume C, Issue 29554, 1 July 1961, Page 5

"The Duke" Will Be Personality Of French Rugby Team

Black-haired, gypsylike Amedee Domenech I—“ The Duke"—will undoubtedly become the greatest (Character of the French ! Rugby tour of New Zealand. ■This great prop forward’s: I name and his feats have no 1 'doubt preceded him—yet, | paradoxically, very little is, 1 known about him. • There was no “higher eduI cation” for Amedee. He] learned in the hard school of experience. “1 was the cheek- i iest brat in Narbonne,” he I says. Before he was 12 hei was working in the vineyards] and doing a man’s job. At 16 he played for the Narbonne Rugby Club's first i fifteen. There were some hard I games even then for the 1 young Domenech. Today at 128, he can point to a row] i of missing front teeth, per-1 1 manent reminders of the! I tough opposition of those 1 I days. ; Domenech’s first game as an 1 international was at Cardiff ! in 1951, when he played for the French Junior represenj tative team. In 1952 be was ] tried as a hooker for the French B team, playing ] against Combined Services at (Biarritz. Although his team ' won. Domenech was not a | success. | “I hooked the ball only once during the entire game. i I believe the English hooker I left it for me because he was I sorry for me. But mind you, Il wasn't really tough then. 11 was only 19." he says. | It was at Cardiff again that i he made his debut in a first- | class international. He re- ! placed Brejassau in the I French XV which had already | beaten Scotland. Ireland, and New Zealand. And now Domjenech had earned a place in the team to meet Wales, and which, for the first time in

history, gained the Rugby crown for France. He was a corporal in the Joinville Battalion, but promotion was just round the comer. Captaining the Army XV, he avenged the defeat of : the previous season and was I rewarded with the rank of sergeant. A place in the ■ French team was now (assured for him from game to game. In 1957, the “black year” for French Rugby, the selecjtors forgot the basic principles of the scrum in favour Jot speed. The results for France were disastrous—four losses for the first time since the war, and the tournament ' wooden spoon. ] Then came the era of the 'great. Lucien Mias, who coxn- '; pletely changed the style and ■ play of the “Tricolores.” But I he didn’t care for Amedee. '‘ And Amedee felt the same ; way about Lucien. “Domenech has every- ; thing to make him the best. He knows how to do everything, and he is able to do everything. All he needs to 1 do is to do it. Alas, he is incorrigible,” said Mias. Showman It is certainly true that Domenech sought the limelight. The showman in him took control, and when the crowd roared, his joy was complete. He “loved to break away, flex his muscles, make others pale, and reduce a whole team to confusion by . selling a dummy.” But this quality, which may be desirable in a circus, can become a serious danger in the middle of a ruck. And at times these one-man-band solo tactics did just that to the French pack. The critics shed many tears over “The Duke.” Domenech was now the owner of a cafe-restaurant in Brive-la-Gaillarde. and business was flourishing. He also brought Brive back into first division Rugby. In his hometown. “The Duke” certainly was king. With the French Rugbyteam Domenech was not so ; fortunately placed. The selectors knew that it would be a serious step if they dropped him. But after France went down to England, 14-0, at Colombes, Dom-

enech was replaced for the game against Australia by the phenomenal Alfred Roques, and played only in a minor match against Italy at Naples. The selectors were irritated by his “gift of the gab” and hoped to teach him a lesson. Domenech’s penance would have ended there if he could have made the trip to South Africa in 1958. But just when he had hopes of redeeming himself, he was forced to stay at home to undergo medical treatment. At Nantes on March 29, 1959, he made his comeback. He was a sensation, but still he was not selected for the following game against Wales. “I am disappointed. Disappointed because I believe whole-heartedly that I should be back, and disappointed for my friends in Brive.” he said. Amedee Domenech was not

included in the French team till January last year. His reappearance was marked by none of the former swashbuckling showmanship that endeared him to many of his supporters. Instead, it was discreet —a state of affairs his enemies would not have thought possible. The same evening he was interviewed on television. Everyone expected some sharp comments, in his old style. But there were none. “You were very good on TV the other day,” said Roger Lerou when he met Domenech at the FranceEngland game. “But Monsieur Lerou, I didn't say anything, 1 was as silent as a carp,” said “The Duke.” “It is precisely because of that, that you were perfect,” replied Lerou. Since then, Amedee Domenech has adopted the motto that silence is golden.