Pablo Jezequel: "The flame went straight to the team".

Pablo Jezequel is captain of the Montpellier university rugby team. Last February, he and his team-mates retained their title of French university champions.

" As holders of the title, we were certainly expected to be there, especially as there was a lot of movement in the team during the year and we built it up at the last minute ," says captain Pablo Jezequel. In fact, the team shone at the French university championships held in Aix-en-Provence last February, even though the players had little time to learn how to play together: " In fact, the flame went straight into the team, and we went and got the title against Toulouse, who on paper were stronger than us, but I think we wanted it more than them, and in the end it showed!

This year's event was not only a success, but also a great atmosphere, as the rugby player underlines: " We really enjoyed ourselves! There must have been between 20 and 30 men's and women's teams, and we were really among friends, with a great organization and atmosphere! This is an important dimension for Pablo Jezequel, who likes more than anything to emphasize the " beautiful values " of his sport, the " collective " and " educational " dimensions, the challenge of surpassing oneself, but also "the physical confrontation which is combined with a lot of tactics, technique and intelligence. That's what I'm looking for in rugby, that's what I've found and that's why I'm staying!

"I love everything about this sport".

At the age of 21, the young sportsman has already played for Rugby Club Jacou Montpellier Nord for 15 years. " I started when I was six, and we're now playing in the Federal 2 league," he says, proudly. He recently became president of Sun 7 rugby, a Montpellier-based rugby à sept team set up with a group of friends. If we add to this his involvement with the university team over the past 4 years, he accumulates between four and six hours of training per week, to which must be added matches every weekend and additional training sessions such as weight training. In short, Pablo Jezequel eats rugby, sleeps rugby, lives rugby. " I love everything about this sport!

After graduating from the UFR Staps in Montpellier, Pablo went on to study for a Master's degree in sports management at his rugby club, which makes organization a little easier. " It's a good thing I'm on a sandwich course, but when I'm at school, I sometimes get up at 5am to do sport, and then rush out of class to go and train. It's a passion he'd like to pursue further by setting up his own sports management business.