New Zealand v France/Profile of Raphael Ibanez: Gerry Thornleyon the extraordinary pedigree and fascinating career of the man on whose shoulders so many French hopes are carried tonight
It's hard to think of a man or a player more suited to captaining France in this, their greatest hour of need for some time: a quarter-final against the almighty All Blacks in Cardiff in France's Coupe du Monde. Raphaël Ibañez was born to play rugby and becomes more and more steeped in its culture.
His father, Jacques, was a hooker with his hometown club, Dax, as well as his first coach; his maternal uncle was a wing; a father-in-law, Claude Dourthe, was a centre and captain of the French team; his mother-in-law, Maryse, is the daughter of a former Dax prop; and his wife, Sandra, is a sister of the Bayonne and ex-France centre Richard Dourthe.
An intelligent, well-read, well-travelled man who wrote a book about his travels in Argentina when he was 21, Ibañez has had a remarkable second coming as a test player to the point where not only is he the French captain at their home World Cup, he is also very much the emblem and conscience to team and people alike.
Prior to the tournament kicking off, Ibañez had said, "Our Holy Grail will be to have the All Blacks in the final. The ultimate journey, the last page of the World Cup."
But in the immediate aftermath of that painful defeat to Argentina in the tournament curtain-raiser, it was Ibañez who spoke at length about the need for composure in the mini-crisis and encouraged squad and country alike to look forward positively.
The almost inevitable consequence of that defeat, however, is that a disappointed team and a furious country are compelled to play the All Blacks in Cardiff today rather than the Scots in Paris tomorrow.
"The main disappointment for France is the fact that the French fans can't really come over and watch the game. It's a massive disappointment for us," he admitted during the week.
Even he struggled to put a positive spin on this near-worst-case scenario: "The Millennium Stadium is a fantastic arena to play, especially as you don't really have to consider the weather conditions with the roof being closed. It's a great stadium."
Ibañez's future after this World Cup is unclear. So highly regarded is he within French rugby, there is talk of him moving from player to the next coach of les Bleus - if not now, then almost certainly one day.
Jean-Claude Skrela, the coach who first made Ibañez captain of France in 1998, 10 days before the player's 24th birthday and after only six tests, is now technical director of the national squad and recently said of Ibañez, "He will be a great coach of the French team. At some stage I'd see him taking charge of the forwards with Emile Ntamack for the backs and a skipper (head coach, possibly Guy Noves) to cover them."
Ibañez has the qualification - sports teacher and regional technical adviser - to apply for the job. But does he want to? For the moment he is a player and, needless to say, is not inclined to look beyond tonight.
He certainly has the pedigree.
"To talk about Raphaël would take hours," says the French backrow legend Jean-Pierre Bastiat. "You'd have to start with Jacques, his father, whom I played with and who was an odd type of hooker. You'll find it hard to contact him as he can be abrupt though he's softened with age."
His primary-school teacher in Saugnac-et-Cambran on the outskirts of Dax was among the first to recognise young Raphaël's leadership abilities when making him captain. When Raphaël played underage with Dax, his father coached the first team and "Little Manole", as he was known before he became known to everyone as "Rafa".
"Today it's not my father's opinion I'm most interested in after a match, but without him I don't know if I would have succeeded," he says. "He gave me the essential thing: demands on myself. I had to fight; that wasn't easy. On Friday evenings when I was a student in Toulouse, he'd pick me up at the (train) station but didn't say a word to me, not even if I'd be playing on Sunday."
Basketball, in truth, had been his early obsession but at 17 he gave up that sport to concentrate on rugby. Within two years he was part of a French team that won the Under-19 World Cup and included Fabien Pelous, Olivier Magne, Yann Delaigue, Ugo Mola and Ludovic Lousteau.
While Pelous, his long-time companion in arms, was being selected for the 112th time for France against England before the World Cup, Ibañez was equalling Sean Fitzpatrick's world record, 92, for most tests as a hooker.
Proud of his Dax roots, Ibañez has just bought a huge house there for his numerous family - wife, four children (Clara, Mateo, Marie and Julian), a dog, a goldfish (now, alas, buried in the garden). And Dax is as proud of him. Jean-Pierre Bérot, president of Dax, says, "Before I was proud for him. Now I'm proud for us. Everything he has achieved reflects well on our club and our town."
From Dax to London and back again, to becoming France's spiritual leader and captain, Ibañez has taken his time and his detours. True to his roots, he loves the peace and calm of mountain streams, where he fishes for trout, but says he has never thought of his life as a long, peaceful river.
"Thanks to rugby I've had the opportunity to discover countries, the Fijian Islands, Argentina. I've seen scenery to take your breath away but I think France is the most beautiful country in the world . . . with a history which makes you want to open books. Even though I have a Spanish name from my grandfather, Spain calls to mind much less for me."
Though he is an integral part of the solidarity and spirit of the group, Ibañez clearly loves his solitude too, particularly in those Basque mountains where he fishes and questions himself after each setback before facing up to fresh challenges.
After a career that had taken in Dax, Perpignan and Castres, he must have spent many a long day there in the summer of 2005, after announcing he was leaving to join Saracens - since when he moved to Wasps. The perception then was that he had become a semi-retired exile. No-one would have seen Ibañez as French captain for the Coupe du Monde over two years later.
"I found in my innermost self resources I hadn't suspected," he admitted before the World Cup. "I felt that I still had something to express."
And so not only did he return to the team; he ultimately did so as number one in the group and number two on the pitch.
Perhaps anything should be expected from a player who writes and plays darts left-handed, while throwing into the lineout right-handed. In 1995, aged 22, Ibañez travelled around Argentina à la Che Guevara and, à la Guevara, put pen to paper in a journal entitled À Bout de Bras (at arm's length), co-written with the painter Frédéric Brandon and the journalist Jean Cormier, now in his fourth decade as rugby correspondent with Le Parisien. It was, he says, "a journey on my own initiative" - which Cormier says tells us much about the journey and Ibañez's character.
So too does his position. Ibañez says he loves being a hooker for three reasons: "Firstly, it was my father's position at Dax. Secondly, for its face-to-face nature; the best place to feel the pulse of the team, at the heart of the scrum. And thirdly, I love being the smallest in the middle of the hefty guys."
He would love to add to and supplant the great French moments that have decorated every World Cup, though as he concedes, none are better than perhaps the defining French try in that unforgettable semi-final win over Australia in 1987.
"I was 14. We (his father and he) got up early to watch it. I still get a thrill when I see again Serge Blanco's try. It was the outcome of so much effort from forwards and backs in its technical freedom and quality."
Alas, amid their recent run of seven successive defeats to the All Blacks, Paris in November 2004 was something of a nadir. France lost two props and, in something of a slight on their rugby culture, ended up having uncontested scrums.
"I was retired. I was watching the game on TV, or maybe I was lying on the beach watching the All Blacks - I don't know."
Something more prosaic and resolute may be required tonight if les Bleus are to sustain their country's interest in the World Cup.
"They've got world-class players in every position and the main thing for the scrummage with the All Blacks is that they all work together really well, so technically I think they are on top."
Will France be ready for them?
"We'll see on Saturday. The side is ready to front up."
There's a steely glare in the captain's eyes that suggests they are indeed.
