Jean-Baptiste Élissalde

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Jean-Baptiste Élissalde
Personal information
Date of birth November 23 1977 ( 1977-11-23) (age 30)
Place of birth La Rochelle
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Weight 73 kg (11 st 7 lb)
Nickname le Petit rat (the small rat)
Notable relative(s)    *Laurent Bidart (maternal grandfather, international)
*Arnaud Élissalde (paternal grandfather, player and coach)
*Jean-Pierre Élissalde (father, international player & coach)
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position Scrum half, Fly-half
Clubs Caps (points)
1997-2002
2002-		 Stade Rochelais
Stade Toulousain
National team(s) Caps (points)
2000- France 28 (190)

Jean-Baptiste Élissalde (born 23 November 1977 in La Rochelle, France) is a French rugby union footballer. He is a third-generation France international, as his maternal grandfather Laurent Bidart and father Jean-Pierre Élissalde both represented France in international rugby.[1] Élissalde is capable of playing either as a scrum-half or as a fly-half. He played in La Rochelle until 2002 then decided to go to Toulouse, where he initially had a hard time breaking into the senior squad, competing against Frédéric Michalak and Yann Delaigue.

Now he is the first-choice scrumhalf at Toulouse and is competing with Biarritz Olympique's Dimitri Yachvili for the number 9 shirt in the French national team. He was notably the best French scorer during the 2004 Grand Slam and also scored 36 points.

Élissalde was a member of the Toulouse teams that won the Heineken Cup twice in 2003 and in 2005, but he has not yet played in a Top 14-winning team. He is considered one of the best goalkickers in France and kicked the winning conversion in the quarterfinal against New Zealand at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, a game which France won 20-18.

[edit] Trivia

  • His name, which is a very frequent Basque name, means "near the church" in the Basque language.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Bond, Karen, Rugby News Service (2007-10-13). Key match-ups - Gomarsall v Elissalde. Rugby World Cup. Retrieved on 2007-10-15.

[edit] External links

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France squad - 2007 Rugby World Cup
Forwards
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