Two announcements on the same day, and they point the same way. Jefferson Poirot will miss the start of the Top 14 after spraining the medial collateral ligament in his right knee in training on Tuesday. He faces six to eight weeks out, and Union Bordeaux-Bègles have started looking for a medical joker.
The loosehead prop used the press conference to confirm what those close to him had been hinting at since his last extension: at 33, he will play this season and then stop. “I want this season to be the best of them all,” he told Sud Ouest.
A career ending out of sync
Three days ago, we noted that Poirot had never played as much as he has since signing what he described as his last contract, in December 2024.
| Season | Matches | Starts | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-2022 | 20 | 12 | 607 |
| 2022-2023 | 24 | 17 | 921 |
| 2023-2024 | 23 | 15 | 956 |
| 2024-2025 | 28 | 22 | 1,396 |
| 2025-2026 | 27 | 21 | 1,279 |
Two seasons with more than twenty starts, twice the game time of 2021-2022, and a return to the France side this summer after more than six years away: three matches, two starts, 145 minutes. That is the moment he chooses to call time.
What it reveals about Bordeaux’s recruitment
Midi Olympique reported on Saturday that UBB were targeting English prop Beno Obano for the summer of 2027. At the time, that was explained by the fact that both Poirot’s and Matis Perchaud’s contracts end in June 2027. The captain’s announced retirement removes part of the uncertainty: the position will indeed lose its most-used starter.
Then there is the short term. With Poirot unavailable and Zaccharie Affane sidelined until the end of the year with a ruptured pectoral tendon, the club go into the new season short of numbers in the position. Georgian signing Lasha Pkhakadze and Matis Perchaud, back from knee surgery, will share the load.
UBB host Racing 92 on 5 September.
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