“It’s not a bold choice, it’s an obvious, logical choice that was clear to me and to the group.” Karim Ghezal has named Antoine Deliance as LOU’s first captain of the season, for the home game against Clermont on Saturday at 19:05 at the Matmut Stadium. The back rower is 21.

Six appearances out of twenty-six

The obviousness the Lyon coach talks about does not come from time spent on Top 14 pitches. Deliance has played six matches in the competition, all in the 2025-2026 season, with five starts. His first came on 25 October 2025, his most recent on 6 June. He also has one Challenge Cup appearance, in January.

Measured against his club’s season, that is a modest workload. LOU played twenty-six Top 14 matches in 2025-2026 and used forty-six players. Thirty-seven of them made more appearances than he did: the new captain was the thirty-eighth most used player in the squad.

Leadership experience from the France U20s

The path that built his standing lies elsewhere. Deliance played in the Under-20 Six Nations in spring 2025, four matches, then at the U20 World Championship in July of the same year, another four. Eight international matches in a single season, all as a starter.

On top of that came a full season with Lyon’s Espoirs in 2025-2026: twelve matches, eleven of them starts. That is where he built up the game time the Top 14 has not yet given him.

A back row to rebuild

The context also weighed on the decision. Lyon go into Round 1 without Sam Simmonds, who has a neck injury, or Liam Allen, who suffered a concussion, both hurt early in the game against Leinster in the only pre-season fixture. Two back rowers, in the very position of the new captain.

The Lyon staff have also signed François Cros, but the Toulouse international will not join the club until 2027, after the World Cup. Until then, the back of the Lyon pack will rely on a captain discovering the league at the same time as he leads in it.