As a player, Marc Lievremont was international 25 times, winning the 1998 Grand Slam, but he lost the 1999 World Cup final to Australia. As coach he led Les Bleus from 2007 to 2011, winning the Grand Slam in 2010, but lost the 2011 World Cup final to New Zealand. He is now a consultant for Canal+ and a business speaker.
Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1968, where his father is based, a soldier engaged in the Navy, Marc Lievremont then moved to the Pyrénées-Orientales where he learned rugby along with several of his brothers. It was at USA Perpignan that he revealed himself at the highest level before joining Stade Français in 1997, and ending his career in Biarritz, which he joined in 2000.
In the France team, he was part of the Blues who beat New Zealand in the semi-finals of the 1999 World Cup, a major feat that has become legendary, with a second Marseillaise sung between players only, in a circle, after the Haka of the All Blacks, to distract and disrupt their opponents.
“La Marseillaise is not first and foremost about playing for your country, it’s about sealing a pact between partners and communing with the supporters.”
Marc Lievremontat franceinfo
Despite this feat in the semi-finals, Marc Lievremont who feels “both profoundly French and a citizen of the world”will lose the final of the 1999 World Cup, another will refuse him 12 years later when he has been the coach of the French team since 2007, his team lost to New Zealand 8 to 7 at Eden Park in Auckland, shaking the All Blacks, and even dominated the last half hour despite arbitration deemed unfavorable.
On his return to France, when he left the selection, Marc Lievremont received many spontaneous tributes from the general public, and the Marseillaise often accompanies these emotional moments.