Thibaut Flament: France’s Six Nations star on fertility treatment

If you think Thibaud Flament is busy on the pitch, you should see him work the Buenos Aires coffee scene.

In 2017, the then 20-year-old arrived in Argentina’s capital with one contact, no job and no idea where he would sleep that night.

He had come from Loughborough University. The fellow students on Flament’s international business degree course had been through a battery of interviews and assessments to secure high-flying internships.

Flament’s goals were different. He had told Loughborough’s placement office he was going to Argentina to play rugby.

«They were a bit surprised – it’s not really the point of the course,» the France second row tells BBC Sport.

Undaunted, Flament found a club, bought a ticket and took the plunge.

Marcos Ayerza, the former Leicester prop, picked him up at Buenos Aires airport early on Saturday morning and took him to a Club Newman game. At the post-match barbeque, one of his new team-mates sorted him a room.

But Flament still had no income.

«I was trying to get into every expat network in Buenos Aires – the private French schools, the French Embassy staff, the French chamber of commerce,» Flament remembers.

«I snuck into events, got myself invited to some places, I even went to coffee mornings with the partners of expatriates who were working in Buenos Aires. All basically to find a job.

«Then, one day, at an event this man came up to me.

«He said, ‘I’ve heard so much about you, everywhere I go, everyone tells me that there is this guy looking for a job – he’s young, he’s trying everything. You know what? It’s fine, I’m taking you. You’ll be the next intern.'»

Flament had been handed a plum job at the French Embassy.

«I said to him, ‘Do you want my CV or something?'» Flament remembers.

«He said, ‘No, we don’t need it – what you did is enough.'»

Flament had made his own way and his own luck.

It is a constant running through a unique rugby CV.

Flament grew up in Belgium, but, finding no way into the French club system, moved to Loughborough University for its rugby programme, arriving as a lanky fly-half and initially playing for the university’s fifth team.

His decision to chase balls in Argentina, rather than CV padding in the UK, helped his frame bulk out and convert into a second row.

After Covid lockdown hit, shortly after making his Wasps debut in September 2019, Flament made another big call. He opted to head back to Belgium to train, rather than remain in the club accommodation he shared with, among others, now Bath number eight Alfie Barbeary.

«We could see borders locking down and the academy manager at Wasps said travel was only allowed for emergency reasons,» Flament remembers with a smile.

«I said, for me, this is an emergency – I don’t want to get stuck in the academy house in Coventry, I’m leaving tomorrow. I told Alfie, ‘Sorry, it’s really not negotiable!'»

There have been many stops in his career, but his focus has been singular.

«Professional rugby has always been my aim – all my choices in life were dictated by that goal,» he says.

«I was quite driven – I knew where I wanted to be and what I had to do to get there.»

One of the things he has left behind on the way is ‘Bob’ – a doubt-filled alter-ego who Flament feared could kill his dream.

«I realised in Argentina I had some potential in rugby, but that my personality was preventing me from reaching it,» says Flament.

«I guess I was a bit shy, a bit insecure and it was stopping me expressing myself in the real world, but also on the pitch.

«So I started writing things down and analysing myself.

«I tried to dissociate – the big, shy me would be called Bob, and the idea was that when I freed myself from Bob, Thibaud could be whatever he wanted to be, the best player he could be.»

There is a clip of Flament playing for Newman in Argentina. Wearing four on his back, he hits a line, bursts into the opposition 22m, swerves left and drops the ball on to his instep, grubbering crossfield for his wing to score.

It is a passage of play devoid of Bob.

After breaking through into the Wasps team, French selectors applied another three-letter moniker to Flament, describing him as a UFO, such was his sudden, unexpected appearance on their radar.

They were quick to intercept him.

Flament was lying on a physio bed in Wasps’ treatment room, only a handful of first-team appearances under his belt, when his phone buzzed.

William Servat’s face appeared on the screen.

France’s forwards coach was calling to let Flament know he was in their thinking.

A little over 18 months later, having moved to Top 14 giants Toulouse, Flament made his France debut in November 2021.

Ever since, through the 2022 Grand Slam, the 2023 Rugby World Cup and 2025 Six Nations title win, he has been a regular for France’s biggest days.

Except, for this month’s Six Nations opener against Ireland. Flament was missing. He could easily have made up a muscle strain or tweak.

But instead he made another brave call, explaining that he would miss the match so he and his wife Ethel, who has endometriosis, could attend time-sensitive fertility treatment.

«It was not easy to make the decision that we were going to explain why,» Flament says.

«[We thought] maybe some people would be saying, ‘Oh, this is stupid’ or ‘Should they do that?’

«But actually the reality was what we hoped. It was a lot of people being very nice to us, wishing us good luck, sending tips, people that went through the same sharing stories.

«Honestly, it’s been great.

«It’s obviously not something you would shout on every roof that you’ve been through medical assistance for a baby, but we’ve been surprised to see how many people we know went through that.

«The France staff understood really well and made it easy. My wife and I thought it was the best for everyone, really.»

After appearing off the bench against Wales, Flament returned to France’s starting line-up against Italy last weekend, delivering a superb performance for the Six Nations leaders.

Even ‘Bob’ would be impressed.