Jean-Luc Sadourny (born 26 August 1966 in Toulouse) is a former

French rugby union The French Rugby Federation (french: Fédération Française de Rugby (''FFR'')) is the governing body for rugby union in France. It is responsible for the French national team and the Ligue nationale de rugby that administers the country's pr ...

footballer and a current coach. He played as a fullback. He was nicknamed ''The Old Woman'' (''La Vieille'') and he is generally considered one of the best French players of his generation, a fair successor to

Serge Blanco Serge Blanco (born 31 August 1958) is a former rugby union footballer who played fullback for Biarritz Olympique and the French national side, gaining 93 caps, 81 of them at fullback. His alternative position was wing. He was generally nickna ...

in his position. Sadourny played all his career at US Colomiers, which is based in Colomiers, a suburb of Toulouse. His best result was the 2nd place in the France Top 14 in 2000. He had 71 caps for France, from 1991 to 2001. He scored 15 tries and 4 drop goals, in an aggregate of 86 points, during his international career. The French fullback was selected for the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...

, playing a single match, and for the

1995 Rugby World Cup The 1995 Rugby World Cup was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country. The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in Sou ...

, playing in all the five matches. He helped France to reach the 3rd place in this event. He won the Five Nations twice, with grand slams, in 1997 and 1998. Sadourny is also remembered for scoring the famous "try from the end of the world" against the All Blacks in 1994. In the second and final Test of France's tour of New Zealand, France were trailing with about 3 minutes to play and were pinned deep in their own end by a tactical kick. They counter-attacked down the field, with the ball touched by nine different French players before Sadourny touched down to give ''Les Bleus'' the points that secured a 23-20 win and a 2–0 series win. After retiring as a player, Sadourny entered the coaching ranks at Colomiers. He left to take over the reins at

Blagnac Blagnac (; oc, Blanhac) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France. The city hosts the aviation museum Aeroscopia. It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Toulouse, although governed by a separate council, and is ...

for the 2007–08 season, leading them to an appearance in the Fédérale 1 final, where they lost to his former club Colomiers. As is standard practice in France, both finalists earned promotion to

Rugby Pro D2 Rugby Pro D2, also known as Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was in ...

for the 2008–09 season. However, Sadourny chose not to stay with Blagnac, moving to Fédérale 3 club Stade Saint-Gaudinois for 2008–09, where he currently remains. In 2010, Sadourny opened his own restaurant, the Sadourny Café, in Colomiers.

External links

Jean-Luc Sadourny International Matches
1966 births Living people US Colomiers players French rugby union players French rugby union coaches Rugby union fullbacks France international rugby union players Rugby union players from Toulouse {{France-rugbyunion-bio-stub