Monsieur Rugby made his home-town club the greatest in France before making history as the record-breaking captain of the national team.

'Monsieur Rugby' would seem like the ultimate accolade in the history of the sport in France, so it comes as a surprise that the name was bestowed on Jean Prat by the English press.

French captain Prat was given the name in his final season as an international, when two drop goals inspired France to victory at Twickenham - the drop-double is still a record for an international forward today.

Despite his international honours, flanker Prat is as well remembered for his time at the Lourdes club. In a career shortened by World War II (part of which Prat spent a prisoner of war), Prat played in nine championship finals for the Pyrenean club, losing the first two in 1945 and 1946, but winning their first Bouclier de Brennus in 1948 and repeating the feat in 1952 and 1953 before achieving a hat-trick from 1956-58.

The Lourdes management had been accused of buying in players from local rivals, offering 'incentives' funded by the town's post-war building-boom fuelled by the increasing numbers of pilgrims flooding into the town. But there's no doubt that the attacking style that Prat developed as captain (captains also took training duties at this time) contributed to the club's dominance.

FC Lourdes was certainly a family affair: Jean's brother Maurice played in the centre for Lourdes and France in the same period, and the ground was built on land their father, Joseph, had given the club in 1928.

Prat's hard-tackling style and speed at the breakdown, not to mention his eye for a break, won him his first French cap playing a British Army XV at Parc des Princes on New Year's Day 1945 - France had been expelled from the Five Nations in the 1930s but the British government were keen to re-integrated their wartime allies into the sporting world. Prat helped France to a 21-9 victory with two conversions.

In 1947 he played in the first post-war Five Nations match against Ireland, and was to play in every French team in the tournament through until 1955, apart from the 1951 Ireland match, which he missed through flu while brother Maurice took the field to win his first cap.

During his career, he played in France's first wins over Wales (1948), England (1951) and New Zealand (1954), when, as captain, he scored the only points of the match with a barn-storming solo try. He captained France throughout 1954 and 1955, but had already shown his captaincy credentials for les Bleus as early as 1949 when, with France clinging onto a two-point lead over Wales and tiring, he turned his his team-mates and said: "These British have been giving us shit for 100 years, surely you can give some back for just five minutes!". They held on to win.

Prat's France were facing Wales at Colombes again six years later, with Prat winning his 50th cap and the French just 80 minutes away from their first Grand Slam. They had to settle for a share of the championship for the second year in a row, but at the final whistle, rather than celebrating their win, the Welsh players lifted the French captain on their shoulders and carried him off the pitch.

Prat retired two weeks later after winning a then-world record 51st cap against Italy. He captained France 16 times, and left a legacy that would lead to a decade of famous wins home and away before France's overdue first Grand Slam in 1968. His international points record - 145 points from 26 conversions, 17 penalties, nine tries and five drop goals - would last until 2000, confirming his status as one of the first truly modern players. Appropriately, he also scored his country's 1000th point as he converted a try scored by his brother.

He retired from club rugby in 1959, bowing out with Maurice at the semi-final stage of that year's championnat, and the same year received the Legion d'Honneur for his contributions to the sport in France. He coached the French national side from 1963 to 1967, the highlight of his tenure was an 8-6 victory over South Africa at Springs, before returning to Lourdes, opening a restaurant with his brother called Le Winger.

Jean Prat died in Tarbes on February 25 2005, aged 71. That July, the French Federation named the new Fédérale 1 championship play-offs after the man who helped bring his home-town club from the lower echelons to the very top of the French game. FC Lourdes themselves are among the 48 clubs competing for Trophée Jean-Prat this season.

The day his death was announced, Wales beat France in a thrilling match in Paris to stay on course for their own Grand Slam. The game was turned shortly after half-time by two opportunist tries, created from next to nothing by flanker Martyn Williams. Monsieur Rugby would have approved.