Serge Betsen Tchoua (born 25 March 1974) is a former French

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player who played as a flanker 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 ...

and Biarritz at club level and for internationally. He is generally considered to be one of the top flankers of the professional era (post-1995) of rugby union.

Career

Born in

Kumba Kumba is a metropolitan city in the Meme department, Southwest Region, Western Cameroon, referred as "K-town" in local slang. Kumba is the most developed and largest city in the Meme Department and has attracted people from the local villag ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

, of partial

Bamileke The Bamileke are a Central African people who inhabit the Western High Plateau of Cameroon. Languages The Bamileke languages belong to the Grassfields branch of the Niger-Congo language family, which is sometimes labeled as a " Bantuoid lang ...

heritage, Betsen moved to France with his mother and six siblings when he was nine, settling in the Clichy suburb of Paris. He played his first competitive rugby for the local Clichy based Club Sportif before joining the southern giants Biarritz when he was just 17. Betsen made his first appearance for France aged 23 in 1997, as a replacement against , but did not receive his second call-up until the

2000 Six Nations Championship The 2000 Six Nations Championship was the first series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship, following the addition of Italy to the Five Nations. It was the 106th season of the championship overall. The title was won by England. England wo ...

. Thereafter he became a regular starter in the national team. Nicknamed ''la Faucheuse'' (''the Grim Reaper''), Betsen was regarded as one of the fiercest tacklers in the game, and was also renowned for his high work-rate on the field. Betsen's finest moment came during the

2002 Six Nations Championship The 2002 Six Nations Championship was the third series of rugby union's Six Nations Championship, the 108th international championship overall. The annual tournament was won by France, who completed a grand slam. Participants The teams involved w ...

, in the match against , when his relentless man-marking of

Jonny Wilkinson Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, CBE (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scoring the w ...

eventually resulted in the

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

's replacement and paved the way for a 20–15 victory. Later, England's coach,

Clive Woodward Sir Clive Ronald Woodward (born 6 January 1956) is an English former rugby union player and coach. He was coach of the team from 1997 to 2004, managing them to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He also coached the 2005 British & Irish Lion ...

, said of Betsen: "“He is the only player that I can say was the single-handed reason we lost a match." France went on to win the

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

and Betsen was named France's International Player of the Year. He was an automatic selection for the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

and scored France's only try in the semi-final loss to England. In 2005 he was cited following an incident during Biarritz's Heineken Cup match against

in which Wasps

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

Stuart Abbott suffered a broken leg; the complaint was dismissed after a disciplinary hearing found that "the trip, while intentional, was not premeditated" and had happened "in the heat of the moment". Betsen was renowned as a fearless tackler, but with increasing age he started to pick up more frequent injuries and he missed the 2005 Autumn internationals after fracturing his cheekbone in a match against

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

. Despite this, he continued to be a formidable tackler: in the

2007 Six Nations Championship 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 ma ...

, which France won, he completed 56 tackles, 12 more than any other player in the tournament. Toward the end of the 2005 season, Betsen held talks with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

club Leicester Tigers about a possible move from France, but in the end he decided to stay at Biarritz and signed a new three-year contract. On 16 January 2008 Betsen announced that he was retiring from international rugby with immediate effect. On 11 May 2008, it was revealed he was signing for

. Betsen made a good start with Wasps performing well and earning respect from the Wasps supporters, for the A side whilst recovering from injury, before moving into the first XV. During the 2009 6 Nations championship he was made Wasps captain in the absence of the senior England players and friend Rafa Ibanez (though retirement caused by injury). The club announced that he would share the captaincy for the remainder of the 2008/09 season with Phil Vickery, and he put in excellent performances as captain, being awarded two man of the match awards in quick succession. Betsen left London Wasps in June 2011 and announced his retirement from rugby at his "Jubilee" game in Biarritz on 6 June 2012. Betsen signed with London Scottish as defence coach for the 2012–2013 season. Betsen is a member of the 'Champions for Peace' club, a group of more than 90 famous elite created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization placed under the High Patronage of H.S.H Prince Albert II. This group of top level champions, wish to make sport a tool for dialogue and social cohesion. He also created the Serge Betsen Academy in 2004. This charity aims to help underprivileged children in Cameroon, his native country. On top of introducing the children to Rugby, the charity supports the children's education and access to basic healthcare. In 2013, he created another charity, the French Legends, which reunites former rugby internationals and professionals in order to participate in charity matches and events to support other charities. In 2008, he started Serge Betsen Consulting and in 2015, he created Serge Betsen Rugby, a multisport coaching programme for the French schools of London.

Career

References

External links