Detected at a very young age at RC Narbonne, Pierre-Louis Barassi (24) was trained in Lyon before signing his first professional contract at LOU and becoming a member of the Lyon team over the seasons. Now attached to Stade Toulousain until 2025, the young international center (three selections) speaks for the first time on France Bleu Occitanie.
France Bleu Occitanie: How is your integration going?
Pierre-Louis Barassi: From a human point of view, things are going pretty well. Afterwards, from a technical point of view, rugby, it’s always complicated to enter a new system, to enter a new group with automatisms. It’s still a little complicated, but it’ll get done over time. It takes a little adjustment.
Do you feel any particular pressure?
There is no particular pressure. It’s a new challenge, it’s a new life, a new club. There are a lot of things that change. You have to start from scratch, that’s for sure, when you come from a club where you spent six years. So no, no particular pressure, except excitement and a great challenge. I know that I am in a historic club. We can say that it is one of the best clubs in the world in a region steeped in rugby.
Signing at Stade Toulousain was a career goal?
It wasn’t necessarily a goal. It was an opportunity that I seized. Of course, I had Stade Toulousain in the back of my mind, because when I was little, in Narbonne, it was the big local team. But really, this new challenge, playing with great players, is what also tips the balance. Now it’s up to me to play. It’s up to me to progress in this kind of club. You can also, as they say, burn your wings. Afterwards, it’s up to the players to get up every morning to be better and for my part, to adapt to this system and integrate myself properly within this group and progress.
You were talking about progression, is it also in a club like Stade Toulousain that we can continue to progress to reach the French team?
Coming to Stade Toulousain also means reinventing yourself and trying something new. Maybe discover something in me and discover something in my game and expand my palette, progress. First and foremost, I want to become a better rugby player.. And then, if it turns out that I get better, maybe I can wear the blue tunic. I think there are a lot of players who will have this deadline in mind (one year from the Rugby World Cup in France). I don’t focus on that, first of all, I want to be efficient.
Did you already know Toulouse? Do you like it?
Yes, I know a little. I’ve come here two or three times already to visit accommodation, to come and live here, but also when I was in Narbonne when I was younger, I happened to come to Toulouse. It’s a city that I like, a little in the style of Lyon, let’s say in the sense that it’s a big city where there are big companies. We feel that there is an energy and that, it also boosts every morning when we get up, it’s true that in this kind of big city, it’s stimulating. And then I’m not far from my dad who lives in Narbonne. So that too is a real added value.