a rugby player with a “strong character” but who was also “demanding of himself”, for his friend Jean Glavany

After the death of the legend of French rugby, striker of the XV of France and Mont-de-Marsan, André Boniface, who died this Monday at the age of 89, one of his friends, the former minister and former deputy Jean Glavany, salutes the memory of a “strong character” but who was also “demanding of himself”.

For Jean Glavany who had known him for a long time, he was “very demanding of himself because he was an exceptional creative player”but above all “physically very demanding”. According to him, “he was a professional before his time. There was no weight room, but he did push-ups and sit-ups by the thousands. Every day, he did weight training, pull-ups on the handrail of the concrete around the Mont-de-Marsan stadium. He went running in the forest every day.”

Tributes will be paid to him by the world of rugby. An obvious fact according to Jean Glavany: “I think that everyone who loves the beautiful game, those who had the chance to meet him, to play with him or to play against him, whatever his damn character, will recognize that his talent has been passed on and must be passed on again. The tribute is also the rugby players on the field who will pay it in their own way.”