We left Eliott, prop for Rugby Club Baulois and a pillar of Charlie’s Corner alongside Marion the manager and Thierry the boss, heading off to enjoy himself in Dublin. Even the Moscato show made quite a thing of it.

Now he is upside down, Down Under, in the “suburbs” of Queenstown, on New Zealand’s South Island. Picture postcard, 12-hour time difference, total commitment. 

Six years ago, Eliott made a first trip to join his sister in New Zealand for a month with his parents. What came next? He explains: “In fact, in 2025 I met my girlfriend. She was the one who already had her own plan to come over here on a working holiday visa. And I joined the project. And it fitted with things I’d wanted before and had put to one side. And it also matched up with quite a few things on the professional and personal fronts.”

Over 25, open to the world, a loosehead prop, more than a hundred kilos including the beard, Eliott took on the challenge with determination, a smile and commitment: “It’s a country that had made an impression on me in several places. I’ve got a bit of unfinished business, really, with the first time I came six years ago. So the idea here was to make up for all that, and to make my own trip as a young adult.” Overseas Experience, as the Australians and New Zealanders call it; Eliott is doing it the La Baule way.

Right, there was still a misunderstanding, or a small hiccup, over Christchurch before ending up near Queenstown, in the south of the South Island… Never mind, the “Froggies down Under” Facebook groups did the rest, quickly and efficiently. 

The right one-year visa, a fully equipped campervan bought from a Frenchman and a change of course to the south of the South, ‘housekeeper’, cleaner and, in less than a month, a prop for the Wanaka team, a gem tucked away on a lake at the foot of ski resorts more than 2,000 metres up! A setting worthy of Lord of the Rings.

“We had no certainty when it came to work and we didn’t want to end up in a situation where we’d be chasing after a job. So we widened our search,” Eliott explains. “The most certain one was Wanaka. It’s an hour north of Queenstown, so still in the southern part of the country. The high plateaus, let’s say, just the foothills of the Alps. It’s at the foot of the ski resorts.”

It was the only place where he was certain of finding work: “The advantage is that the wife of the Wanaka club manager is the director of the hotel where we work. So for now, we’ve landed on our feet. It means we have the same hours and the same days off, because my girlfriend and I both work in the same place.”

And so, on days off, two a week, it lets them see as much of the country as possible: “We don’t need much, it lets us live according to our needs. But we’d still like to find something full time in the medium to long term.” 

But while waiting for the rugby season, it should do nicely, with the club’s general meeting and the first training sessions in early February for a championship that starts in March.