Stade Rochelais: Matthias Haddad-Victor, former ball boy at Rabine, has grown up a lot

It was in Vannes, which he will face this Saturday (4:30 p.m.), that the Rochelais, a former fly-half in Charente-Maritime and Brittany, discovered his current position. A development that corresponds to the open-minded nature of the 24-year-old.

" I would really like to play at La Rabine, it would remind me of when I was a ball boy there." When Matthias Haddad-Victor, who had previously been spared concussions, was knocked out in Bordeaux on April 26, 2025, it was thought that the dashing La Rochelle third row would not be able to fulfill his wish of September 6 and return to Vannes this Saturday. With the tests having been reassuring, the 2019 U20 world champion will indeed be making the trip to Morbihan , a department close to his heart.

Because if "MHV", 24 years old, was born in La Rochelle in 2001, started playing rugby there at 6 years old and revealed himself there after returning in cadets, he also lived almost a third of his life in Brittany. After Muzillac for four seasons, it was in Vannes, from 2013 to 2016, that his career took a decisive turn. At RCV, Goulven Le Garrec, his coach at the time and now a member of the professional staff, suggested to the young number 10 the idea of ​​moving to third row.

"I know him particularly well," says the man who is none other than the father of future Rochelais Nolann Le Garrec. "I coached him from the age of 12 or 13. He already had that size and his qualities but was lacking a little bit of a change of pace. Naturally, after having a lot of fun at the back, I advised him to change around the age of 14 or 15, to express all his qualities as a tackler, his size, his ability to be a high-level third-row support. He was strong, he attacked the line, often in the forward line."

"I don't think we see him enough, but he's a magnificent striker."

His world title and European Cup final against Leinster in 2022 reinforced his confidence: "I gave him one of my U20 team shorts and I was convinced he would have more," says the Breton coach. "I knew there would certainly be some work to be done on the touchline, jumping, core strength, etc. But he was already putting in a lot of effort, generous on the pitch – you can see that in the tackles he makes – just as he is in life. He's always positive, I don't remember it causing him many problems. He's an adaptable, positive, helpful kid in general."

"He has real intelligence in contact, an ability to bounce back, to pivot, to get out of the frontal position he has built through his past as a fly-half, but also through his physique (1.92 m, 99 kg, Editor's note), adds Antoine Praud, his coach at the La Rochelle academy upon his return to the club in 2016. He has a somewhat atypical profile, very tall, very "equipped". We don't see it enough, I think, unfortunately, but he is a magnificent attacker. Current rugby makes it more complicated for him to express it, but he is a player of space, of disorder."

To the point that "sometimes, it went a bit all over the place, he made us lose a semi-final Taddeï on an improbable kick, smiles the sports manager of the training center. We accepted it: he had so much energy... we can't demand that everything be square between 16 and 18 years old; we prefer when the players offer more than not enough." And if his technique and his ability to play the eels in defenses bring him closer to Kevin Gourdon, the latter sees another analogy: "He is having his best season in terms of matches played (22, editor's note) and that delights me because he always gives the best of himself, a bit like Wiaan Liebenberg (La Rochelle's third row from 2018 to 2022, editor's note). That counts in a team."

"He came to eat at my house recently, he played the guitar and I played the trumpet. He's also an artist."

As much as his character off the field. However, like the South African and the former French international, Matthias Haddad-Victor is a very open-minded person. "You can discuss anything with him, with real arguments," Gourdon adds. "He's curious, with interests relatively close to mine; he's not a rugby player from morning to night. My ultimate dream is to learn the piano, but before that, I had a guitar, and Matthias plays the guitar very well." "He came to eat at my house recently, he played the guitar, and I played the trumpet. He's also an artist," Goulven Le Garrec emphasizes.

"He got into theater, he's very much into discovery, not too fixated on a norm," adds Antoine Praud. "He's always wanted to break the mold." And share his emotions and those of others, as endearing as he is attached to his partners: "He's a rather unusual kid in that regard, with a kind of empathy that sometimes loses him a little, because it's an environment that doesn't fully allow it. But he's a unifier: in his final year at the academy, he integrated the 2003 generation, Oscar's (Jegou) generation, very well. He's very loyal, authentic. He's aware of each person and each step that made him grow up. He likes to remember where he comes from."

Hence the importance for him of playing this match in Brittany, at La Rabine, before welcoming Nolann Le Garrec this summer to his Yellow and Black. "They have a very strong friendship, it's a kind of logic that they find each other. Matthias has often been protective, he will continue to be. He will have to be, in any case," laughs the father of the international scrum-half, 17 cm shorter than his former fly-half at Vannes.