At 22, Ethan Dumortier knows his first selection with the XV of France, at the opening of the Six Nations Tournament, against Italy. But who is this young winger of the Blues?
He is the new kid that the general public will discover this Sunday, February 5, 2023. If lovers of the Top 14 have been following his performances since the start of the season, the name of Ethan Dumortier is not yet known in the bosom of rugby. international. And for good reason. He knows this afternoon his first selection with the XV of France, on the occasion of the first day of the Six Nations Tournament, in Italy. At 22, the LOU player, current top scorer in the French championship, was destined for the role of substitute at the Olympic stadium in Rome. But the injury of Gabin Villière propelled him to start on the left wing of the tricolors. The opportunity to show off a little more after a dream start to the season.
World champion with the French team -20 years old
Ethan Dumortier is therefore a player of Lyon Olympique Universitaire, with whom he plays as a winger. Born in 2000, he started with young people in Saint-Savin, near Bourgoin-Jallieu, a club he would then join to continue his training with young people. The LOU then enlists him when he evolves into Crabos, at 17 years old. It was finally in 2019 that this training center, which slipped to the wing, was noticed by the management of the France under-20 team. In 2019, he started with the Blues during the VI Nations in Italy (!) and scored a try. While he still hasn’t played with the Lyon professional team, he was called up for the Under-20 World Cup in Argentina in 2019 and became world champion alongside Louis Carbonel, Jordan Joseph and Killian. Geraci.
The LOU staff then gave him their confidence to start with the pros and was launched into the deep end via the Champions Cup, where he took part in three matches (two tenures) in 2019-2020, followed by a call-up with the Blues -20 years for the Tournament (two matches, two tries). The Top 14, he only discovered it in November 2020 against Stade Français, in the very special context of the pandemic. He played seven games, including three as a starter, and even offered his first try against Agen on the last day of the championship.
Current Top 14 scorer
From then on, Ethan Dumortier is fully integrated into the professional group. The following season, Pierre Mignoni, the manager, lined him up 18 times on a match sheet, including 15 as a starter. Little by little, he asserts himself, giving himself five tries, two of which are doubled. What attract the eye of Fabien Galthié, the coach of the XV of France.
The emergence of this somewhat unacademic size on the wing (1.91m, 93kg) has been confirmed since the start of the season since he has played 11 LOU matches in the Top 14 out of 16, all as a starter, crashing no less than eight tries to settle at the top of the ranking of the best scorers. In the European Cup, the native of Isérois is just as effective: three games, three starts, three tries (including a double). Performances that opened the doors to the French team, starting this fall: he had been called up for the tour, without playing. He only had to wait a few weeks to put on his first tricolor jersey with the “big guys”.
“He knows the NBA better than the big names in rugby”
And to think it wasn’t even a career goal. “When he started rugby, it was to follow his friends. He was the most puny, the smallest. He grew up suddenly,” his father, Jérémy, told The Team. Especially since in the family, it’s more basketball than oval: the mother played at ASVEL and the father trains a fourth division team. And his measurements brought him closer to the baskets than to the posts. “He knows LeBron James and the NBA better than the big names in rugby” even launched, a bit mockingly, Kendrick Lynn, his main coach in Lyon, with The Team.
In the absence of the parquet, it was on the grass that Ethan Dumortier proved to be a formidable finisher, very skilful in the air moreover. In Rome, perhaps he will repeat his 2019 performance with the Blueberries? Or will he again manage to get the better of his vis-à-vis Ange Capuozzo, as with LOU against Toulouse last November?