Émilie Boulard

Émilie Boulard (born 23 August, 1999) is a French rugby union player who plays for the France women's national rugby union team as a full-back. She won the International Rugby Players Women’s Try of the Year at the 2021 World Rugby Awards.

Émilie Boulard
Date of birth (1999-08-23) 23 August 1999
Height175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Rugby union career
Position(s) Fullback
International career
Years Team Apps (Points)
2021-  France 23 (0)

Career

Boulard began her club rugby aged 18 playing for RC Chilly-Mazarin. She won her first senior cap in April 2021 against Wales in the Women's Six Nations Championship. In doing so she became the first Chilly-Mazarin player ever to be selected to play for France. She subsequently won the International Rugby Players Women’s Try of the Year at the 2021 World Rugby Awards, for a try she scored in her debut game against Wales.[1] In September 2022 She was one of three players nominated for the award for the best French international for the 2021-2022 season, with the award ultimately going to Laure Sansus.[2] It was also announced Boulard would be joining Blagnac SCR for the following season.[3]

She was named in France's team for the delayed 2021 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.[4][5] Emilie Boulard started as France became the first team to reach the semi-finals with a 39-3 win over Italy.[6] Boulard described the 25-24 defeat to New Zealand in the semi-final as “the worst defeat of my career and the most painful… The days following this semi-final were very difficult. There were regrets and guilt. We redid all our actions, saying to ourselves "if I had done such and such a thing, we could have made it to the final... When we see the final and our performance in the match for third place, we say to ourselves that there was room to win this title and be world champions. We didn't do it on this World Cup, we will do it on the next ones.”[7]

In December 2022 Boulard made a try-scoring home debut for Blagnac in the Élite 1 competition against FC Grenoble at the Ernest-Argelès stadium.[8] She was named in France's squad for the 2023 Women's Six Nations Championship.[9][10]

References
  1. "Who is Emilie Boulard: Ten things you should know about the France full-back". rugby world.
  2. "Nuit du Rugby : Laure Sansus élue meilleure internationale française à XV". quinzemondial.com.
  3. "XV de France féminin - Emilie Boulard : "Très satisfaite de faire partie de ce groupe"". rugbyrama.fr.
  4. Shepard, Kit (2022-10-15). "France Women's Rugby World Cup Squad 2022 – France 7-13 England". Rugby World. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
  5. Eddison, Paul (2022-09-30). "World Cup Lowdown: France". TikTok Women’s Six Nations. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
  6. "France turn on style in the second half to progress to last four". world.rugby.
  7. "Émilie Boulard: "There was room to be world champions..."". Actu.fr.
  8. "Summary of the weekend". blagnac-rugby.fr.
  9. Eddison, Paul (2023-03-07). "France name squad for TikTok Women's Six Nations". TikTok Women’s Six Nations. Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  10. Rendell, Sarah (2023-04-27). "France Women's Six Nations Squad – Team to face England". Rugby World. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
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