Second row Adrien Warion has been one of the best USAP players since the start of the Top 14 season. Against Lyon this Saturday (4:30 p.m.), he will start for the fourth time in seven matches. To continue to demonstrate his qualities.
Sometimes it’s the less high-sounding names in recruitment that are the best surprises. Adrien Warion is one, for sure. The second row, who arrived from Toulon this summer, is possibly the best player at the start of the season at USAP. He surprises with his maturity in the pure tasks of his position, but also with his contribution to the running game. Often available, in the right tempo. And always in good shots, especially in the rucks where he had scratched two balls against Pau. He is also part of the Top 10 best tacklers in the championship (55 successful tackles). In short, the complete range of the good pickaxe.
Franck Azéma, the providential man
And yet, Adrien Warion is only 23 years old. But like players like Posolo Tuilagi, Joaquín Oviedo or Ignacio Ruiz, he already has high-level experience which allows him to have important baggage to put to the benefit of the group. He is not international, but he wore the French U20 team jersey for three years. Upgraded twice, therefore. He rubbed shoulders with the Usapists Giorgi Beria, Akato Fakatika and Victor Montgaillard, but also players like Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Yoram Moefana, Nolann Le Garrec, Paul Boudehent and Léo Barré. Which opened the doors of RC Toulon to him in March 2021. At 20 years old. In the middle of the season, while he was playing for Provence Rugby in Pro D2.
His potential caught the eye of Patrice Collazo at the time. But in three and a half years, he has never managed to really establish himself at the RCT. Except during the 2022-23 season under the orders of… Franck Azéma, where he played 16 matches. Obviously, the current USAP manager is no stranger to Warion’s arrival in Perpignan. “He’s a coach that I really liked at Toulonadmits the second line. Especially this human side that he has with the guys. Each one, individually, comes to see us, he talks to us, he exchanges with us. When we have to work, he tells us: “you need to work on this”. When he tells us: “There, you won’t play, but on the other hand, I want you to work on that”or “you play, but I want you to show this”. That’s also why everyone likes him and why he’s a great manager.”
This trust that Franck Azéma placed in him, Adrien Warion has reciprocated quite well since his arrival. The native of Thionville in Moselle, who arrived in the PACA region very young, clearly does not do well in the Catalan collective. And with the absence at the start of the season of Mathieu Tanguy, as well as the long injury of Posolo Tuilagi (fracture of the tibia fibula), his presence was precious in this number 5 position. Endowed with a powerful physique (2.02 m, 120 kg), he came to bring a form of play that the USAP is looking for. Apart, obviously, from the profile of Posolo Tuilagi. Warion is close to a Mathieu Tanguy in everything that is meeting point, defense, ruck. Poisons. And, of course, the public likes it. Especially since the second line is a sideline solution, which allows the staff to be able to align two non-jumping third lines. In this case Joaquín Oviedo and Lucas Velarte against Lyon this Saturday.
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I know I was better off, so I decided to leave.
For his part, what Adrien Warion wants above all else is to play. In five matches this season with USAP, he has already almost exceeded his total playing time in the Top 14 over the last two years. A deliverance. Because his last year in Toulon was complicated. “A year like I did, where I made six match sheets, at my age, after a while, it gets a little boring (sic). We want to see better, to see elsewhere, and also for oneself. Maybe afterwards, I wasn’t as good as I was. But in any case, I know I was better. So, I decided to leave.” And it was in Perpignan that the colossus landed.
And this is where he is showing his true level, what he is really worth. To the point of almost saying that he has become one of the players to be checked off first on the match sheet. In any case, at the start of the season, it’s a certainty. He clearly knew how to seize his chance through the injuries of others, and he is much more than a simple alternative in the second line, he who can play as well in 5 as in 4. To be confirmed, again this weekend, against international Mickaël Guillard.
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