Aviron Bayonnais begins its recruitment for the next season with a major announcement. As expected in recent weeks, the club from the edges of Nive, current 3rd in Pro D2, formalizes this Friday, December 24 the signature of scrum half Maxime Machenaud. The player of Racing 92, native of Bordeaux, initialed a 3 year contract. “This is only a first announcement (of recruitment), and it will be followed by others very quickly”, announces the Basque club.
Maxime Machenaud, who will be celebrating 33 Years next December 30, is a player with a full CV. It displays 41 selections with the XV of France, the last on the occasion of the 2019 World Cup (2 matches, 1 start). An experienced player who played 213 Top 14 games with Racing 92 (2012-2022, 168 games), for a Brennus Shield won in 2016, and Agen (2010-2012, 45 games). It also has 52 Pro D2 matches with Union Bordeaux-Bègles, its training club. The scrum-half, also a scorer (1405 points in 365 games in all competitions), has also played 51 European Champions Cup matches, in which he has played two finals (2016, 2020).
Strong symbol for next season
“The bayonnaise option was the best (…) it is above all a sporting choice”, says the player in an interview with Rowing Communication. He claims to have had the opportunity to continue the adventure in Racing, and to have been approached by two other Top 14 clubs. The atmosphere of the Jean Dauger stadium, according to him, weighed heavily. But the player, father of 3 and native of Bordeaux, also recognizes a family choice: “with my family, after 10 years in Paris, we could not see ourselves going elsewhere than in the South-West”.
This arrival of weight is a strong symbol for a Bayonne club under reconstruction, many of whose players are at the end of their contract and who will change manager (Grégory Patat will succeed Yannick Bru next season), and which aims for a return from the season next in Top 14. “We can imagine all the added value that this player will bring to our workforce,” writes Philippe Tayeb, president of Aviron Bayonnais Rugby Pro, who says he is proud of this signing.