While some of his teammates experienced a serious delay in starting after the World Cup, Damian Penaud continues to deliver brilliant performances and pile up the tests. Dragster launched at full speed. The French XV winger, still sparkling last weekend against Bristol, scored his ninth try in six matches with Union Bordeaux-Bègles. Against the English, he was simply untenable: 130 meters covered in 11 races, 6 crossings, 8 defenders cleared, 9 passes plus 2 after contact and a decisive one. In international form.
Recently, his teammate, scrum half Maxime Lucu, confided about the phenomenon which has blossomed in Clermont: “There are tests in his image, with great success, and others where he is in support or served on a plateau. We have to serve him in the best conditions, today we did it as best as we could and when Damian has the balls and the space, he is one of the best wingers in the world. We are very happy, for us, it is added value.”
Within a Gironde team resolutely focused on the offensive, the one nicknamed “Cheval”, for his long strides (1.92 m) and his devastating supports, gives the full measure of his talent. Against Perpignan, he scored a superb double at the end of November (in just one half!) but he refused to take the cover. “It remains anecdotal, I am the last so obviously I am not going to make the pass to the sidelines,” he joked at the microphone of Canal. But yes it’s cool, the big guys did a big job, we played well, we were well behind, there were a lot of good things. We had some automatisms and we are going to remember that.”
Also read: XV of France: “magical”, “true thoroughbred”… The mad race for records by the phenomenon Damian Penaud
Since the World Cup, Damian Penaud has been unstoppable. Already, during the global competition organized in France, he finished top try scorer in the first phase with six goals in three matches. His double against the Italians (60-7) allowed him to overtake Philippe Saint-André then Vincent Clerc to come within just three tries of the French team record, held by Serge Blanco (38). A hellish pace with the Blues: in 2023, the ex-Jaunard has flattened 14 times during his eleven games played with the Blues. Before remaining silent in the quarterfinals against the Springboks, he had scored at least one try in the last seven matches.
His arrival in Gironde went wonderfully. No adaptation time required. At UBB, he found familiar faces that he meets in the French team, Maxime Lucu, but also Matthieu Jalibert and Thibault Giroud, the former physical trainer of the Blues. “Damian, we all know him: he is a player who is capable of making differences, who has a lot of influence in a group. He’s a great finisher who really feels the punches. We can already see what he can bring us in the first matches he played with us: when he touches the ball, something always happens, Jalibert appreciates in the columns of Sud Ouest. It is always important to have players behind capable of making differences and we expect Damian to take the game on his own and make the difference as he was able to do in the French team and with Clermont .”
And the international fly-half confides: “I feel he is very comfortable, he has integrated very quickly, he is always smiling and seems fulfilled and happy. And on the field, he performs well. A major asset for the French XV which will quickly come together to prepare for the next Six Nations Tournament. With his big kid side, eternal joker. “He needs to bring this carefreeness, this fantasy. This is the way he works and it suits him well, Cédric Heymans, the former international winger, recently told us. That’s why I compare him to an artist. If he is like that and he is good, we have nothing to say to him. We just need him to be good and efficient in what we ask of him.” One thing is certain: he has not lost his efficiency or his joie de vivre at UBB.
