News Rugby found Arnaud Mignardi

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International twice through Agen, Biarritz or Clermont, Arnaud Mignardi spent a large part of his career in the colors of Brive. Born in Alsothe club of his beginnings, he returned to the Gers to wear the jersey of his hometown in Nationale 2 one last time and then become coach of the Espoirs. A player of character, he is a well of anecdotes and memories. At the time of Rugby found him: quite a moment.

Arnaud Mignardi: start in Auch, finish in Auch

In the era of professional rugby, the expression heart club can seem like a nice sentence, sometimes a little hollow. And then there are those for whom the attachment to a club, a city, a jersey, remains visceral for life. The kind of bond that you never get rid of, like the one that exists between Arnaud Mignardi and Auch.

Moreover, when talking about his best memories, it is not the Top 14 seasons, the European Cup, or his selections with the French XV that surface first in the mind of the former three-quarter center.

“Among my best memories, there is my arrival here at Jacques-Fouroux, at 18 years old and for a few days facing the great Biarritz. The old people did me the honor of letting me enter a crowded stadium first. I will remember that all my life,” he remembers.

It is therefore quite natural that after a journey which took him to Agen, Brive or Clermont, the Auscitain by birth returned to the Gascon capital to live out his last hours as a player after a first experience as a coach at Dax.

“I felt the need to play again. Everything had stopped suddenly during Covid and I needed to finish on a pitch to hang up my crampons. I was in contact with Greg Menkarska, the manager of RC Auch, we went for one season, I did two and that was more than enough for me! I reached the end of things, physically, logistically, there was no need to do one more,” he smiles.

A long-standing promise

This last dance could have been seen as a pirouette, made easy by Arnaud Mignardi's proximity to RC Auch, a personal need to satisfy, without going so far as to speak of a whim. It was obviously much more than that: the appointment had been made a long time ago.

“When I left here (for Agen in 2006, editor's note), I always told myself that I would come back to complete the circle, I had promised it to my grandfather. The first jersey I wore was the Auch one, the last one I would wear would be the Auch one,” explains Arnaud Mignardi.

A return which allowed him to embark on his second career: “I was launched here at the age of 18, it was Auch who revealed me. I have always been very attached to my land, I have always wanted to give back what was given to me, all the knowledge, all the values. What Gers rugby was able to bring me, I want to pass it on to Auch again. »

This is how he is now participating in the restructuring of Auscitaine training, damaged by the bankruptcy of FC Auch in 2017 and back in action thanks to the work of the various players in the club.

“We have to become a training club again where there are nuggets that are hatching, we have found the Crabos level, we have found the Alamercery level, the young people in the Super Challenge… All this is starting to pay off, I am in the process of to take the Espoirs and I see that the generation that is coming has a good time, it's starting to look like something with guys who are potentially capable in two years of playing first and interesting the biggest teams”, hopes -he.

Unhappy in the final

In nearly 20 years on the pitch, from the Nationale 2 to the Top 16 which became Top14, Arnaud Mignardi has had the time to amass some memories, both good and bad. Would he change anything about his career?

“No, absolutely nothing. I've had ups, downs, I've experienced things that… no, I wouldn't change anything. Even the stupid things I've done, even the defeats, I wouldn't change anything because it's me,” he breathes.

Faults, no doubt. But above all a whole character, a refusal to back down even during this famous fight against the titan of La Rochelle Jone Qovu, a mentality of steel which made him a feared competitor.

“What makes the difference at a high level is the ability to surpass oneself, the ability to overcome challenges and not to give up. We were taught in Auch that when we are in pain, we continue. Here, more than elsewhere, we are a land of workers, a land of the needy, where to exist we need to surpass ourselves, because they will not give us a gift, they have never given us a gift. believes the one who was nicknamed the Bison.

A strength of character that he used without bending, particularly during delicate seasons in Corrèze: “I experienced unforgettable moments with Brive while playing defense, where I truly saw the value of men, I saw the need to be united, the need for cohesion. We needed each other to exist, to survive because it really was survival. It was the end, it was coming down to one point, it was coming down to the minute, we had to hold on absolutely, otherwise it was the whole city, it was an entire ecosystem, a budgetary system that would break down. the mouth. »

Significant human adventures which have unfortunately never been rewarded with a shield or any charm: “I have plenty of memories that I will keep engraved forever, but I have never known a title, I have always lost in the final. I lost the Top 14 with Clermont in the final, I lost the Pro D2 with Brive in the final, I lost the European Cup with Biarritz in the final against Toulouse in 2010… In short, I experienced some superb epics but which never ended with titles. »

The “suicide” tour of the XV of France among the All Blacks in 2007

We understood that before intimidating Arnaud Mignardi, we had to get up early. Even a summer tour with a somewhat experimental French XV had not particularly impressed him, when he was chosen to challenge the All Blacks at home twice in 2007.

“I was on the tour when I was 20, I was happy! I left the sector under 17, under 18, under 19, under 21. You give me the selections, I take them! I was happy, carefree,” recalls the Gersois.

Which does not prevent him from being lucid about the difficulties of the mission at the time: “I understand that people said that it was a suicide tour because we finished the Top 14 on Saturday evening, we boarded on Monday to go to New Zealand and we played on Saturday. That is to say that you had 24 hours of flight, you played against the All Blacks a few days later with a novice team. It was the Barbarians! Against the All Blacks, it's not enough. »

With two scathing defeats 42-11 and 61-10, suffice to say that the best moments of this tour to the land of the long white cloud are not to be found on the field, even if Arnaud Mignardi underlines “the honor of having played with Christian Califano, Thomas Castaignède and Olivier Magne”.

It is also the former Toulouse pillar who returns to the carpet when discussing a final anecdote: “He asked me to shave his head, he did it before each match. I had a lawnmower and started mowing it. And there, no more battery, no charger because I had forgotten it. He had some kind of task left, he was crazy! He told me “you figure it out, you find something, I can’t play like that tomorrow, it’s not possible”. Fortunately, we found a solution and things are back to normal. »

And given the very relative sporting stakes of this tour, perhaps the essential thing was in these moments, these unusual slices of life which we still enjoy almost 20 years later.

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