Raphaël Ibañez (born 17 February 1973) is a retired French rugby union footballer. A hooker, he represented the France national team 98 times, and as captain 41 times. After a career in club rugby management, he became Team Manager for France in 2020.

Early life

Ibañez was born in

Dax Dax or DAX may refer to: Business and organizations * DAX, stock market index of the top 40 German companies ** DAX 100, an expanded index of 100 stocks, superseded by the HDAX ** TecDAX, stock index of the top 30 German technology firms * Dax ...

, Landes. He began his playing career in his home town of

before moving to

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

and

Castres Castres (; ''Castras'' in the Languedocian dialect, Languedocian dialect of Occitan language, Occitan) is the sole Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administ ...

Club career

After his first international retirement following the 2003 World Cup, he moved to

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

. In 2005 he moved to

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

on a two-year deal. In the first match of the following season, he was made captain as replacement for the injured

Lawrence Dallaglio Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972), known as Lawrence Dallaglio, is an English retired rugby union player, former captain of England, and 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. He played as a flanker or number eight ...

. He was also heavily responsible for

London Wasps Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...

' win in the 2007 Heineken Cup final, playing in the same side as fellow Six Nations captain Phil Vickery. Wasps beat long-time rivals Leicester at Twickenham and Ibanez scored one of Wasps's tries. The following season he also started as Wasps won the 2007–08 Premiership Final in former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio's last match. Ibañez continued to play for Wasps until suffering a series of what ultimately proved to be career-ending head injuries in late 2008. On 28 February 2008, Wasps announced that Ibañez and the club had agreed on a contract extension that would see him serve as a specialist forwards coach in the London Wasps Academy, as well as play for the senior side, during the 2008–09 season. On 5 August 2008 Ibanez was named as successor to

to take over the captaincy at

On his 36th birthday, 17 February 2009, Ibanez announced his retirement from all rugby as a player. He suffered a

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration, ...

in a match against

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union club, based in Worcester, England, that is currently in Administration (law), administration and which has been suspended and will be relegated from Premiership Rugby, the top ...

in September 2008, and suffered further head injuries in two later games. Whilst completing a two-month rest period, he continued to suffer symptoms from his injuries during training sessions, and ended his playing career on medical advice.

International career

He made his debut against Wales in 1996 and went on to win 72 caps for his country, including 27 as captain, before his first retirement from international rugby in 2003. He won successive Grand Slams with France in 1997 and 1998 and led them to the World Cup Final in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

. Ibañez retired from international rugby after the 2003 World Cup, but French coach

Bernard Laporte Bernard Laporte (born 1 July 1964) is a rugby player, coach and former French Secretary of State for Sport. From 1999 to 2007, Laporte was the head coach of the France national team. In 2011, he became the head coach at Toulon, after Philippe Sa ...

made it one of his priorities to bring him back into the fold, especially after fellow hooker

William Servat William Servat (born 9 December 1978 in Saint-Gaudens, France) is a former French rugby union footballer and is currently an assistant coach for the France national team. Servat played as a hooker for Toulouse in the Top 14 club competition and ...

was ruled out of the autumn schedule with a neck injury. He added 26 more France Test caps, 15 of them as captain, before announcing his second and final international retirement in 2008. Ibañez served as France captain for the

2007 Six Nations The 2007 Six Nations Championship was the eighth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 113th series of the international championship. Fifteen mat ...

, taking over from the injured

Fabien Pelous Fabien Pelous (born 7 December 1973) is a retired French rugby union footballer. A lock who also occasionally played as a number eight and flanker, he played the bulk of his professional career for Stade Toulousain, and is the all-time leader i ...

for France's first two matches, and then being named captain for the remainder of the competition after Pelous' injury ruled him out of France's remaining three fixtures. Also in the

Ibañez became the first player to score a try in the 82,300 capacity

Croke Park Croke Park ( ga, Páirc an Chrócaigh, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and he ...

after the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

(GAA) modified their

Rule 42 Rule 42 (now Rule 5.1 and Rule 44 in the 2008 guide) is a rule of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) which in practice prohibits the playing of non- Gaelic games in GAA stadiums. The rule is often mistakenly believed to prohibit '' foreign sp ...

in 2005 which banned foreign sports from being played in Croke Park. Under the modified rule both the

Ireland national rugby union team The Ireland national rugby union team is the men's representative national team for the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Ireland competes in the annual Six Nations Champi ...

and

Republic of Ireland national football team , FIFA Trigramme = IRL , Name = Republic of Ireland , Association = Football Association of Ireland (FAI) , Confederation = UEFA (Europe) , website fai.ie, Coach = Stephen Kenny (foot ...

were allowed to play their home games in Croke Park while renovations were carried out on

Lansdowne Road Lansdowne Road Stadium ( ga, Bóthar Lansdún, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for ...

(reopened as the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium (also known as Lansdowne Road) is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,700 spectators (all seated). It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and r ...

). After Pelous' injury troubles continued, Ibañez was named as France captain for the 2007 World Cup, with Pelous as his unofficial vice-captain. France went on to finish fourth in the 2007 World Cup. Ibañez announced his second retirement from Test rugby on 10 January 2008. In 2020, after a career in club rugby management, and following the retirement of coach Bernard Laporte, Ibañez was appointed as Team Manager for France in a joint appointment with

Fabien Galthié Fabien Galthié (; born 20 March 1969) is a French rugby union coach and former player, he is currently the head coach of the French national team. His usual position was at scrum-half. He played much of his club rugby for Colomiers, and later ...

as Head Coach and Selector to lead the side into the 2023 World Cup to be staged in France.

Media work

Ibanez has published two books and has been a regular guest in the BBC's Six Nations studio. He also comments on the Six Nations for the French channel

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 ...

Personal life

In his spare time he enjoys fly-fishing and extreme sports like rock climbing and kayaking.

Notes and references

External links

Wasps profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibanez, Raphael 1973 births Living people Sportspeople from Landes (department) French people of Spanish descent French rugby union players People from Dax, Landes Saracens F.C. players Wasps RFC players Barbarian F.C. players Rugby union hookers France international rugby union players French rugby union coaches Union Bordeaux Bègles coaches Castres Olympique players US Dax players USA Perpignan players