Pro D2 – With Brive, Samuel Maximin aims for the summits

As is often the case when a club is relegatedhe sees many players leaving. This was the case last season for Rouen. The Normans thus saw several executives leave the RNR in the offseason. Sébastien Tillous-Borde, the manager, left for Montauban with several players in his suitcases (Baptiste Mouchous, Paul Vallée and JT Jackson), the Romanian international center Taylor Gontineac went to Béziers while the scrum half Maxime Sidobre and the third line Samuel Maximin joined Brive. The latter, Rouen's best player last season (number one in the Midi Olympique star rankings), wanted to take on a new challenge in Corrèze. “It’s new for me to play at the top of the table, he admitted during the pre-season training camp in Saint-Lary-Soulan (Hautes-Pyrénées). I would like to return to the Top 14 with Brive, but we must not skip the steps either.”

Come back, because yes Samuel Maximin has already tasted in the Top 14 games four times. It was with Montpellier, with a big debut against Toulouse on February 23, 2020, just before the Covid-related break, at not even 19 years old, after only four years of Rugby. “I started rugby at 15, in Dammarie in agreement with Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), he rewound this summer. My brother, Jimi (today second row at the Pau Section, Editor's note), who is two years older, was already in Montpellier. His coaches at the time, upon hearing from his family, knew that I had started rugby, and asked him to bring me in to see how I was. My brother is a wardrobe man, so they expected the same profile, but they found me with other qualities. They kept me at MHR and made me develop until these loans to Rouen.” Loans during which the slender third row (2 m, 110 kg) was able to toughen up by playing a series of matches with Rouen Normandie Rugby. To the point of becoming, at 23, one of the best flankers in the division and attracting the attention of more ambitious clubs, like Brive.

Advice from a model named Courtney Lawes

In the Corrèze sub-prefecture, where he arrived this summer, with a bac + 3 in charge of commercial management in his pocket, this jack of all trades – among other things ukulele player and stock market enthusiast – Samuel Maximin quickly discovered a new universe with several internationals in the squad. Among them, Courtney Lawes, a legend of this sport, with a fairly similar profile. “Since I was little, I watched him a lot, I watched the videos of his matches, what he does, etc. I was inspired a lot by him. Playing with him is pure joy. Courtney is really cool. I I can pester him with questions, about his career, about different areas of the game. I told him that I used to watch his videos, and he directly told me that he was ready to help me move forward. someone who is not bad in transmission. We talk to each other a lot, especially in areas where he excels like tackling or touchline.

If he started his first three meetings with the CAB on the bench, he quickly made his mark, being valuable on the touchline and through his particularly defensive activity. Good starts which allowed him to make three starts at the end of October (in Aix-en-Provence and Valence-Romans and against Dax), before experiencing a more difficult period on a personal level. Samuel Maximin finally returned to the field last Friday, replacing a certain Courtney Lawes twelve minutes from time. From the outset, the third line displayed all his speed and aggressiveness to catch center Taylor Gontineac at the end of the match. “It feels good to play again, to find this united group again. It’s important to have this second family in certain difficult times”he said when concluding after the meeting. Friday evening, in Grenoble, in the clash at the top of the Pro D2 tableSamuel Maximin could find a starting place in the Brive starting XV. With, at the foot of the Alpine peaks, always this idea in mind to aim as high as possible…