Virgile Lacombe (born 7 July 1984 in Brou-sur-Chantereine, France) was a 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 its m ...

footballer who usually played in the hooker position. He became a coach with

Stade Toulousain Stade Toulousain () ( oc, Estadi Tolosenc), also referred to as Toulouse, is a professional rugby union club based in Toulouse, France. They compete in the Top 14, France's top division of rugby, and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Toulou ...

after retiring.

Career

He started his career at Nîmes, but moved to Toulouse for the

1999–2000 French Rugby Union Championship The 1999–2000 French Rugby Union Championship was played by 24 teams divided in the preliminary phase in two pool of 12. The first two team of each pool were directly admitted to the quarter-finals. The team classified from 3rd to 6th of each ...

. During seven seasons at Toulouse, he made 131 appearances and won the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

championship in 2007–08 and

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, as well as the

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

in 2004–05 and the 2009–10. He then joined CA Brive for the

2011–12 Top 14 season The 2011–12 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Home-and-away play began on August 26, 2011. Two new teams from the 2010–11 Rugby Pro D2 season were promoted to ...

, but returned to Toulouse the following season as a medical joker.

2013 Southern Kings Super Rugby season

He joined the for the

2013 Super Rugby season The 2013 Super Rugby season was the third season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The tournament was won by the Chiefs, who defeated the Canberra-based Brumb ...

. He didn't feature in their first three games, but was then named in their touring squad to Australasia for games against , , and ,. However, he was then recalled after the Kings fielded more than the allowed two foreigner players in their match against the . Instead, he make three appearances for the in the domestic

2013 Vodacom Cup The 2013 Vodacom Cup was played between 9 March and 18 May 2013 and was the 16th edition of this annual domestic cup competition. The Vodacom Cup is played between provincial rugby union teams in South Africa from the Currie Cup Premier and First ...

tournament, scoring a try in the match against the . Following an injury to New Zealander

Hadleigh Parkes Hadleigh William Parkes (born 5 October 1987) is a New Zealand-born Welsh international rugby union player, whose favoured position is at the centre. He currently plays for the Black Rams Tokyo in the Japan Rugby League One. Parkes also has a ...

, he was eligible for selection again and made his debut for the in their match against the in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...

. He also made substitute appearances in the next three matches against the , and the return match against the .

Return to France

He signed a deal to return to France to play for Racing Métro for 2013–14 and left the Kings in July 2013. His last club as a player will be Lyon OU which he joined in 2017, before retiring in 2019 to accept a role as scrum coach for his beloved club, Stade Toulousain.

Honours

– 2007–08 and 2010–11 with Toulouse * Heineken Cup – 2004–05 and 2009–10 with Toulouse

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacombe, Virgile 1984 births Living people French rugby union players Stade Toulousain players CA Brive players Eastern Province Elephants players Southern Kings players French expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in South Africa French expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Rugby union hookers