Rugby European Cup semi-finals: The when and why of Frederic Michalak was one of the great mysteries of this year's Six Nations. In each of France's matches the questions were the same: when would Bernard Laporte bring him off the bench and why was Les Bleus' most high-profile player sitting there in the first place?
The French public clearly did not appreciate the coach's refusal to commit himself to Michalak, who had helped France to a grand slam the previous year after making a huge impact in his first World Cup.
At the Stade de France, when the names of the players were read out over the public address, Michalak, rather than the first-choice outhalf Yann Delaigue, drew the loudest applause. He was greeted ecstatically when he appeared from the bench, as he did, regularly, around the hour mark.
With this background the announcement that Michalak will captain his club, Toulouse, in their vital Heineken European Cup semi-final against Leicester on Sunday takes on a different dimension. Laporte might not have wanted him to start for France but the Toulouse coach Guy Noves clearly feels he is mature enough to lead his club into the East Midlands bearpit, for all that Michalak has captained the side only once before.
"There is no risk involved in giving him the reins," insists Noves.
At 22, Michalak is nine years younger than the injured incumbent, Fabien Pelous, but the coach insists: "Age hardly matters. We've seen it already with Fred and other guys when we won our last French title four years ago."
As for Michalak himself, he does not feel under pressure: "I see it as a statement of confidence, not a weight to bear."
He insists he has put his spell on the bench for France behind him, as he has previous setbacks, including his demotion to the under-21 side. "It wasn't always pleasant but I had to make the best of it."
He says the reasons for his demotion were never fully explained. "The coach didn't come and say directly to me, so I didn't know too much, but I can figure out the need to put me on later in the game, to try out other players with the World Cup in mind."
It is not a topic he is keen to dwell on and clearly it still rankles. The future matters more, he says, and Sunday is worth anticipating. "It's the best match of the season, a super match to play in, against some great players. I played against Ollie Smith and Harry Ellis in under-19 internationals and it'll be good to meet them again.
"I like playing in England. I like the atmosphere, it's festive and they still respect the kicker. That's something I like. We try to tell the crowds here to be quiet but we don't manage it. Some French people are just too stupid to have any respect for the opposition.
"Leicester have been consistently the best team in Europe over recent seasons. They are the number one team, the favourites. We've got a few guys injured. We're playing away. But look at what France did at Twickenham. It will be 50-50. The team that wants it most will win."
Michalak is also keen to discuss his latest venture, a range of clothes ("not Gucci, a small collection, well made, a bit Italian, a bit Spanish, with a lot of colour") that comes out in June.
He has been down the catwalk for Christian Lacroix, has posed naked for the fashion magazine Citizen K and has been proclaimed - to his great consternation - a gay icon by a French gossip magazine.
It would all seem, at first hearing, to underline the received wisdom that here is a man of style rather than substance. And yet his election to succeed the injured Pelous and the bench-bound Yannick Bru implies that Noves must feel there is a hard core under the veneer of haute couture.
So what will Michalak tell his side before they run out at the Walkers Stadium? "Big speeches aren't my thing. There is nothing I can teach anyone in this team, in any case."
What he will say sums up the ethos of his rugby, and that of Toulouse, where Michalak began learning to take pleasure from the simple act of bunging a ball about before his fifth birthday: "Enjoy yourselves. And give it everything."
