Top 14: Mascarenc starts at centre for Perpignan at 19

Six days after the 50-13 defeat at Montpellier, Perpignan hand starts to players of 19 and 21 in their back line against Union Bordeaux-Bègles.

Diego Mascarenc starts at centre, Maxim Granell on the wing, and Lorencio Boyer-Gallardo waits on the bench. None of the three is 22 yet, and two of them already have more Top 14 rugby behind them than their age suggests.

Five Top 14 appearances at 19

Born on 27 June 2007, Diego Mascarenc has played five Top 14 matches, four of them as a starter. His debut came on 21 March 2026, when he was 18. Saturday will be his fifth start, and his first of the season.

I feel we are on the right path. Because during the week the work is being done. We have to keep grafting, keep our heads down

Enzo Forletta

Granell has never come off the bench

Maxim Granell, 21, has a rarer record: all twelve of his Top 14 appearances have been starts. Perpignan’s staff have never used him as a replacement since his first outing in the competition, on 26 October 2024. On the bench, Lorencio Boyer-Gallardo, also 21, has eight Top 14 appearances, three of them as a starter.

A fourth captain in four rounds

Enzo Forletta wears the armband, after Mattéo Le Corvec, Tom Ecochard and Jerónimo de la Fuente. The 32-year-old loosehead, back in Perpignan after six seasons at Montpellier, was one of the few Catalans to address the hammering at the Septéo Stadium head on.

Opposite them, UBB arrive without Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Yoram Moefana, Romain Buros or Matthieu Jalibert, with seven changes from the side that beat Stade Français.