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'Absolute lunatic' - The anecdote that perfectly sums up Yoann Huget's unique approach to opponents
By Ian Cameron
Last week former French international Yoann Huget announced that he was hanging up his boots after a storied career in the game. The Frenchman earned 62 caps for France and to date, has played over 130 times for his beloved Stade Toulousain.
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While few would question his talents as a rugby player, it’s fair to say the Frenchman made more than a few enemies on the field and if truth be told, will go down as one of the most celebrated villains of the last decade of European rugby.
Speaking on RugbyPass’s The Offload podcast, former Munster and Ireland fullback Simon Zebo told a short anecdote about a match against Huget which maybe summed up his attitude to opponents, before and after the whistle had gone.
“He’s a fiery character to be fair,” said Zebo. “He’s a legend. Unbelievable.”
“We had a good few games against him when I was with Munster, and there was a small story. Not a big story.
“Like I was saying he’s a fiery character. I’m 90 per cent sure this is Conor Murray this happened to.
“During the game during a couple of rucks, [Yoann] Huget was going and stamping on Conor’s foot. And Conor was going ‘Hey, what are you doing? Hey ref, look at what he’s doing.’ He was fuming.
“It kept happening like three or four times during the game.
“Anyway, the game had finished and we were doing the little tunnel shake and whatever, everyone is shaking everyone’s hand. And Huget comes up [to Conor Murray] with this huge smile and Conor thought it was genuine.
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“But it was actually a fake smile and he shook Conor’s hand and then stamps on his foot again! Conor is like ‘what the f***? What the hell is going on here? The whistle is blown like.’
“And that just summed up to me how much of a lunatic he was. It was so funny. I couldn’t stop laughing. One hell of a player but an absolute lunatic.”
Au revoir monsieur Huget.
