SYDNEY (Reuters) - France lock Sebastien Chabal, sacked this month by Top 14 club Racing-Metro, is to play a one-off match for suburban Australian rugby club Balmain on February 25, local media reported Wednesday.
The hulking 34-year-old, nicknamed 'caveman' and unmistakable for his long hair and bushy beard, has played 62 times for France and had indicated on French television this week that he was going to play in Australia.
Most had assumed that would mean a contract with one of Australia's five Super Rugby teams but a report in Sydney's Daily Telegraph Wednesday trumpeted the news that the inner city suburb of Balmain was his destination.
"We contacted them in December about him coming over to play some games in between when the French season finished and when the new one started," Balmain club president Warren Livingstone told the paper.
"I sold him on seeing Australia in between the games."
The Balmain match against Petersham will not mean obscurity for Chabal, however, as it is being played as a curtain-raiser for the New South Wales Waratahs' Super Rugby opener against the champion Queensland Reds at Sydney's Olympic stadium.
Balmain play in second division "subbies," three levels below top flight club rugby, but have had internationals in their ranks before with Wallabies Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell turning out for the club last season.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; editing by Ian Ransom)
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