'It was a no-brainer': Ex-Bok Lionel Mapoe on startling shift from Top 14 to France's third tier Nicois
Lionel Mapoe spent his 32nd birthday cramming his belongings into boxes, filling bags with clothes and wrangling with his two young children as they revelled in the mayhem of the family’s Paris apartment. For the second time in a year, the Springbok was uprooting his clan in the name of rugby.
This latest transfer, though, marks a startling shift for Mapoe from Stade Francais in the Top 14 to Stade Nicois in the newly formed Nationale, the third tier of the French game. Capped as recently as August 2018, a double Currie Cup champion and a three-time Super Rugby finalist, it marks a significant drop in standard, prestige and salary.
None of that seems to bother the South African at a time when seriously talented players are scrabbling around for contracts in a coronavirus-decimated market. “Most of the time, we take what we do for granted,” said Mapoe, the new Nicois centre/wing, to RugbyPass. “I have never found myself in a position like this before where I was worried for my family.
“At Stade, we were very happy but when the pandemic hit, the club started to cut costs. I had to dig deep and believe that I would find a club interested in my services knowing that I had only played twelve games last season. A lot of high-class players who played international rugby are struggling to find contracts at the moment. I could well have been sitting here without a job. Stade Nicois gave me that opportunity again and I’m just really thankful.”
Life in Paris was turbulent, eye-opening and invigorating all at once. Mapoe and his family absorbed a new culture and began to learn French. The rugby, though, proved desperately hard.
Don’t be so hard on yourself . pic.twitter.com/AAf96pbPt9
— Lionel Mapoe (@13LionelMapoe14) May 23, 2020
Stade wielded some terrific international players but finished dead last in the abandoned Top 14 after the grimmest of campaigns. Heyneke Meyer, the former Boks coach who signed Mapoe from the Lions last year, left in November to be replaced by two recently retired players. The team won five league games from 17, shipped 488 points and ended with a points difference of -160.
“We struggled to find our identity and how we wanted to play,” Mapoe said. “With the type of players we had, we could well have been a top-five team. I don’t think the style Heyneke Meyer wanted to play suited most of the players and the calibre of player we had. Some players weren’t happy; some weren’t playing to their full potential – including me.
“Some weekends, we changed a lot and we weren’t too consistent. It was difficult to find that identity. You can have world-class players but if you’re not all in sync, you won’t play to your potential. We have world-class players but we still ended up last.
“The potential of the group is massive. If Heyneke could have gotten us all with the same mindset towards what he was trying to achieve, we would probably have been much better off. Last place doesn’t reflect the group of players we had.”
Amid the tumult, it was brutally hard to shine. Injuries struck and Mapoe mustered only a dozen games. He never truly felt like he belonged. “You have to find yourself in a new team. I don’t think I did that in the games that I played, and I was injured in between.
“I know I’ve still got a lot of rugby in me and playing twelve games isn’t going to make me look like a superstar. Some coaches allow the players to have time to cement themselves in a team. Here, we have a lot of international players where from this week to next week, the team could change at any point. I struggled to find consistency.”
With the onset of the pandemic and the changing of coaches, the club decided not to offer him a new deal. There were options in South Africa, with the Lions particularly keen, but Mapoe looked at how coronavirus was sweeping through his homeland and thought it best to keep his family away.
Besides, he didn’t feel fulfilled. His European odyssey had been cut short and left him hungry and underwhelmed. Stade Nicois have now prolonged the Mapoe journey and will regard the Springbok as a serious coup, their marquee player among 18 pre-season recruits.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAFF3G4pvjI/
They are hugely ambitious, with designs on winning immediate promotion to the Pro D2. Mapoe’s former and new French clubs operate a partnership where young players are sent from Paris to Nice for development, easing his transition.
Scottish Rugby also invests in the Nationale club, supplying burgeoning players and coaches, and will be pleased to see its inclusion in the new third tier and yearning to go higher still. Four Scots spent last season at Nicois, with lock Hamish Bain returning to sign for Glasgow Warriors this summer.
Mapoe moved to Nicois in the idyllic south of France on Wednesday. The club have assigned an estate agent to find him a house and he is putting the family up in a hotel until they have settled on a new home. He has signed a one-year deal for now but hopes to stay longer, whether with Nicois or further up the French system.
⚫️🔴 MERCATO 🔴⚫️
Le Stade Niçois est heureux d’annoncer la signature du trois-quart centre international sud-africiain Lionel Mapoe (31 ans, 14 sélections) en provenance du @SFParisRugby.Nous lui souhaitons la bienvenue à Nice ! #Rugby #Nationale #RugbyNationale #Nice06 pic.twitter.com/sSPwFbyRea
— Stade Niçois Rugby (@stadenicois) July 10, 2020
“The mental challenge now is going to be the expectations of me from the people at Stade Nicois,” continued Mapoe. “But I have learned to handle that situation, so I don’t think it’s going to be hard for me to go down the leagues. I know for myself I just need to play to my potential to add value to the team and help the youngsters where I can. I can’t sit here and think, I’m going to a team that’s two tiers under the Top 14, so I must just relax and go for a holiday.
“I need to play to my full potential to say, listen here, it doesn’t mean I think I’m better than the next player. I need to prove to them that I am good enough to play for them. Taking a pay cut is inevitable and if you are looking for a new team, you’re not going to get your market value. That is another challenge for us, but that’s not what I set my mind on.
“That’s one thing that can derail what I’m trying to achieve. I can go down there and be negative because I’m earning less than at Stade Francais and that is going to impact my play, my family. Before I took the Nice contract, I looked at all my options and what is going to be best for the family because I need to support them. It was a no-brainer to go down to Nice, take the contract and start afresh.”
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments