DISAPPEARANCE – The former three-quarter center of Stade Montois and the XV of France died this Monday at the age of 89. He had acquired his fame by advocating an uncompromising offensive game.
He became a legend during his lifetime. Dubbed by the Anglo-Saxons. To describe their offensive credo, a mixture of audacity and creativity, they invented an expression: “French flair”. “In the 1960s, gaming was dying. The French attackers saved him », greeted, much later, Bill McLaren, legendary BBC commentator for half a century. Bust always high, gaze straight, André Boniface embodied, on the pitch, distinguished elegance. A certain idea of romanticism too. Which he never gives up. Even if it means suffering. “Rugby seems to be a brutal, confrontational game. But above all, my brother and I had a taste for aesthetics. My favorite phrase was to say that “aesthetics do not compromise efficiency”. It allowed me to shut up all those who kept saying: “Yes, they are elegant but they don’t win…” We always thought to victory but not by any means…
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