We look at a Beziers legend whose demise is as legendary as the record number of titles he picked up with one of France's greatest sides

Outside Beziers' Stade de la Mediteranée stands a statue of a bearded, balding man holding aloft the Bouclier de Brennus, French Rugby's Championship trophy. Only this is no ordinary Brennus, and it's no ordinary man. In the heart of this concrete shield is the number '10', and the legend 'Armand Vaquerin - 1961-1993 - 11 finales - 10 titres'.

Vaquerin's life was to end suddenly at the age of 42 during a game of Russian Roulette, but by the time he retired in 1984, the Beziers prop had already carved his name in French rugby legend.

With 10 championship medals to his name, the 6ft, 221lb Vaquerin is the most decorated player in the history of the French game. He appeared in every one of Beziers' victorious finals between 1971 and 1984, and also in the only losing final of their remarkable run, the 1976 defeat to Agen.

Vaquerin's first title win, at tighthead in a 15-9 victory over Toulon in Bordeaux, came less than a year after his debut for les bitterois, and before he'd established himself as first-choice loosehead. By the end of that year he'd won his first of 26 French caps in a victory over Romania at Beziers.

His second title came against Brive at Lyon in 1972. Now his club's established loosehead, Armand played alongside his brother Hélios in the front row, but after beating Narbonne in the first Parc des Princes final in 1974, reverted to tighthead for his next three finals.

Vaquerin never scored a try in his 11 finals, and while he may have felt hard done by as fellow front rowers Alain Paco and Jean-Louis Martin scored in 1978's 31-10 win over Clermont, he had the consolation that Martin 'only' won eight winners' medals!

Béziers dominance of the French game during the seventies was underlined when in 1972, 1975 and 1977, they completed three 'grand slams' by winning all four of the titles available to them - the early season Bouclier D'Automne, their own invitation tourney, the Challenge Jules Cadenat and the Challenge Yves du Manoir knock-out competition as well as the French Championship.

Vaquerin won his final French cap in the Five Nations victory over Ireland in March 1980, but played another four seasons with Beziers, winning championship medals in 1981, 1983 and the last (and Beziers' last) following a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Agen in 1984.

After retiring, Vaquerin moved inland to La Graverie in L'Aveyron, where he was made honorary president of the local rugby club. He returned to Beziers in August 1992 for a testimonial which saw many of his seventies front-row rivals turn up to pay tribute.

Less than a year later Vaquerin was dead, shot in a Beziers bar ('Le Cardiff') he co-owned. According to police, he and some friends were playing with a pistol. They thought they had taken all the bullets out when the prop was hit and killed instantly.

Although others in that all-conquering Beziers team are better known overseas - 'Beast of Beziers' Alain Esteve and enforcer Michel Palmie among them - Vaquerin's 10 victories and untimely demise have made him the hero of the mediteranée.

His name lives on in the annual pre-season tournament, Challenge Armand Vaquerin, which has invited clubs from France and further afield to his adopted home in the Aveyron since the summer of 1994. Fittingly, Beziers have won more challenges than any other club, but even in this competition they remain three short of the magic 10 that Vaquerin's statue holds aloft outside the club's new stadium.