Disgraced Bernard Laporte appointed director of rugby at Mohed Altrad’s Montpellier
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Bernard Laporte guided Les Bleus to the World Cup semi-finals in 2003 and 2007.
PHOTO: AFP
MARSEILLE – Controversial former French Rugby Federation (FFR) president Bernard Laporte has been appointed director of rugby of struggling Montpellier, the Top 14 club’s billionaire owner Mohed Altrad said on Nov 18.
Former France head coach Laporte resigned from his FFR post in January after being found guilty of favouritism in awarding a shirt sponsorship contract for the national side to Altrad.
Laporte is appealing the ruling.
Montpellier, champions in 2022, sit bottom of the French Top 14 table after Nov 18’s 23-16 loss to Perpignan.
“We’ve decided to go and get one of the French people that knows world rugby the best,” Syrian-born Altrad told newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
“Bernard Laporte has a winning culture, leadership, team spirit.
“It’s all the values of rugby that we hold dear. He incarnates the spirit our team need.”
In December, former sports minister Laporte was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for his financial dealings with Altrad.
He was also banned from holding any rugby post for two years, but that is suspended pending his appeal.
“I don’t have a comment to make about a process that is under appeal,” Altrad said.
“My state of mind is to focus on the club and rugby emergency.”
Laporte also resigned from his role as World Rugby vice-chairman, months before France hosted the recent Rugby World Cup.
The 59-year-old guided Les Bleus to the World Cup semi-finals in 2003 and 2007 as coach and has club experience with the likes of Stade Francais and Toulon.
He will hope to turn things around at Montpellier, working above coach and former England hooker Richard Cockerill.
Their next game is against promoted Oyonnax on Nov 25.
Montpellier (in dark blue), champions in 2022, sit bottom of the French Top 14 table after Nov 18’s 23-16 loss to Perpignan.
PHOTO: AFP
Laporte replaces fellow ex-France boss Philippe Saint-Andre, who remains at Montpellier to deal with the sport’s authorities, Altrad said.
Meanwhile, six state unions have demanded the immediate resignation of Rugby Australia (RA) chairman Hamish McLennan in the wake of the failed tenure of former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones.
An open letter signed by six of the eight union chairs called for an extraordinary general meeting of the RA board to oust McLennan if he ignores their call to stand down, saying they have lost “trust or faith in his leadership”.
The ultimatum comes in the wake of a miserable year for the Wallabies under Jones, in which they won just two of nine Tests and failed to reach the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time.
McLennan was a key driver in the January decision to replace former coach Dave Rennie with Jones, whose tumultuous tenure ended in October.
The letter, whose signatories include the heads of the powerful Queensland and Australian Capital Territory unions, accused McLennan of “acting outside his role as a director”. AFP
