At just 21 years old, scrum half Baptiste Jauneau has become one of the leaders of the Clermont locker room and embodies the future of French rugby. Before the Auvergnats match against Montpellier this Saturday, portrait.
His mother was his first coach
Baptiste Jauneau was born in Pau in 2003, into a family entirely devoted to rugby. His father, his sister and his mother all played this sport, and inevitably, he succumbed very quickly too, at the age of four. His mother also counted a lot in his rugby career since she was his first «coach» in his younger years: “My mother was my coach for four years. She meant a lot. She was dragging me with my best friend’s mom. But she didn’t show favoritism. When I was bad, she would take me out and I would take blowouts in front of everyone. She was in her role as a coach, not a mother. says Jauneau for The Sports Daily . A requirement which has certainly served him well for the rest of his career, since the Clermontois has exploded professionally in recent years and is now, at only 21 years old, the new captain of the ASM.
Before Clermont, he trained in Biarritz
If Baptiste Jauneau is now playing in Auvergne, the Palois first cut his teeth in Biarritz. His friend Paul Laverne, now a hooker in Dax, brought him to the Basque coast at the time: “I had to go to Montardon high school (Pyrenees-Atlantiques), but my best friend, Paul Laverne, had signed in Biarritz. They told him they were looking for a scrum-half, so Paul and his mother talked about me.reports the Clermontois in an interview for The Team. Jauneau is therefore training in the youth categories at the BO between 2018 and 2021, under the leadership of a certain Benoît Baby, current coach of the French rugby sevens team. A pivotal meeting in the Frenchman’s young career: “Benoît Baby, as soon as I arrived in Biarritz, brought me a lot in terms of rugby. I didn’t necessarily have the passing skills or the kicking game. It also gave me work on myself, outside of rugby, to analyze my matches, to be satisfied with what I had done during the match and not to get stuck where I had not been good. He was my best coach, the one with whom I formed the greatest relationship”explains Jauneau in The Sports Daily.
He is often compared to Antoine Dupont
Fast, explosive and with an extraordinary vision of the game, Baptiste Jauneau is the kind of player who stands out on a rugby field. Through his impactful style and his strong, stocky physique, the Clermontois is, rightly, often compared to the best player in the world Antoine Dupont. “He’s a prodigy, he reminds me of Toto Dupont that I had in Castres. He has the same physical and technical potential”says Clermont manager Christophe Urios about his young player, for The Sports Daily . The same goes for Xavier Garbajosa, who is full of praise for the former Biarrot: “For me it is the symbol of this youth and this renewal. Since he took off his helmet, I think he looks even more like Antoine Dupont. They have the same body type, both athletic, strong up top and on their supports, with a kicking game that is good for their teams”said the former French international last May to Midi Olympique. The new Dupont therefore, who bursts the screen this year. He also had his first call-up with the French XV during the summer tour in South America, where he wore the blue jersey against Uruguay.
Aurélien Rougerie recruited him
Jauneau can pride himself on having caught the eye of the international center, a true legend of the XV of France. “I learned that Aurélien Rougerie and Adel Fellah (sports director of the ASM training center) came to see me during a match. They then contacted my agent, I visited the training center and I was particularly attracted by the human side of it”reports the scrum half in ASM Omnisports . For him, Clermont was undoubtedly the obvious choice. “When I was a kid, I watched the matches with stars in my eyes. As a fan, I watched a lot of rugby on TV and, during those big years of ASM, it was incredible. When you play here, you just want to put this club back on top. You know it’s possible because he’s already been at the top of European rugby. When you are little, you like all the clubs but the ASM European Cup matches left an impression on me. he explains for Clermontinfos. Today, Jauneau already has 66 Top 14 matches and 12 tries at just 20 years old. A phenomenon of precocity.
He won the U20 World Cup
Baptiste Jauneau is part of the new golden generation (with Paul Costes, Nicolas Depoortère or Théo Attissogbé, among others) who competed in the Under-20 World Cup in the summer of 2023 in South Africa. Starting 5 of the 6 matches in the competition at the scrum, the Clermontois made a significant contribution to the success of the Bleuets. His partnership at the hinge with Hugo Reus worked miracles against the New Zealanders (notably with a try), the English or, in the final, against the Irish. At the time, Jauneau had 25 Top 14 matches under his belt and was already well established at the highest level to guide his team in the best possible way. If competition is raging for his position, there is no doubt that he should soon join the great French team, alongside Dupont, Ramos and Alldritt.
