By Illtud Dafydd

After teenager Matthieu Jalibert was ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations through injury Lyon fly-half Lionel Beauxis was called up to the France squad more than five years on from the last time he played for les bleus.

In the 2150 days between Beauxis’ last Test appearance (against Wales on March 17 2012) and being called up to national squad to face Scotland he has played for three different clubs, lifted the Top 14 title and France have had a trio of head coaches.

International exodus

He started is senior club career with Pau, before winning his twenty international caps while playing for Stade Français and Toulouse.

The 2006 U21s World Cup winner was a rouge et noir player the last time he played for the national team and stayed at Stade Ernest-Wallon until the end of the 2013-14 season.

He then joined Union Bordeaux-Bègles and featured more than forty times in two and a half seasons for the Stade Chaban Delmas side.

Beauxis worked under Brunel for a year and despite playing a dozen games during his final half a season with UBB he left them in early 2017 to join newly-promoted Lyon as injury cover.

He played six games from early March to the end of the campaign in the Wolves’ last full season at Matmut Stadium before they moved to football club Olympique Lyonnais’ former home Stade Gerland.

This season he’s only missed five from their 22 Top 14 and Challenge Cup games. His 135 points so far in le Championnat see him sit in fourth spot in the points scorers table ahead of fellow internationals Morgan Parra, Anthony Belleau and youngster Jalibert who he’s replaced in Jacque Brunel’s squad.

Yionel!

In the half a decade since he left the then Millenium Stadium pitch Beauxis has found himself become an ever-growing cult figure within French rugby.

Satirical ruby website Boucherie Ovalie [The Rugby Butcher’s] have been in charge of ‘Yionel‘s rise from being a slowly ageing international rugby outcast to having an almost Messiah-like status.

They have compared him to double World Cup winner Dan Carter and last year started a campaign ‘#Yionel2019‘ for him to be included in les Bleus’ 2019 Rugby World Cup squad.

In their 2018 Six Nations drinking game guide ‘Le Petit Guildford Illustré‘ (Named after former Clermont winger Zach Guildford) they call for a downed drink for whenever his name is mentioned in commentary and say he’s the ideal man to calm North Korea’s nuclear threats.

The man who helped France beat New Zealand at the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter-finals has quite a few fans in l’Hexagone, not just among supporters of the five clubs he’s played for with Boucherie Ovalie’s 102,000 Twitter followers

Destiny?

32-year old Beauxis is one of two outside-halves named in Jacques Brunel’s squad to prepare for the fixture against Scotland.

Alongside him is the three-time international in 21-year old Toulon outside-half Anthony Belleau. On the three occasions Beauxis has faced the Scots he has never been on the losing side, is this the perfect time for his return?

Illtud Dafydd presents The Rugby Conversation. Follow him on Twitter and why not like the podcast’s Facebook page.