Jacques Hughes remembers the greatest players in the history of Mont-de-Marsan, André and Guy Boniface

Rugby history is littered with tales of brothers in arms, no more so than in France, where the Spangheros of Narbonne, Camberaberos of La Voulte and Jean and Maurice Prat of Lourdes wrote their names in local and international legend in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. But the most famous pair of brothers in French rugby has to be les Frères Boniface.

It's not going too far to say that André and Guy Boniface were the first superstars of the French game, their sparkling centre partnership coinciding with a golden era for their Stade Montois club and France's arrival as realistic contenders for the Five Nations championship. But despite the success, both their international and domestic careers were to come to sudden and ultimately tragic ends.

Born in the Landes village of Montfort-en-Chalosse in 1934, André Boniface began playing for his local team at the age of 16 before moving on to the nearest big club, Dax, at the age of 17. Later that season, André represented Dax against a touring Glamorgan side, and found himself playing alongside his hero, Bayonne's flamboyant centre Jean Dauger. Dauger's swift passing put André through for three tries, and his talents didn't go unnoticed by Camile Pédarré, president of Dax's big Landes rivals, Stade Montois, who invited him to move the 30 miles east to Mont-de-Marsan.

"I'd never been to Mont-de-Marsan in my life," said Boniface. "I said to my father: 'I don't want to go there, it's too far!'" Boniface Pere no doubt put him straight, and André duly joined the Stade Montois club where he would make his name. At the end of his first season, Mont-de-Marsan reached the French championship final, where they lost 21-16 to Lourdes with André at outside centre.

International honours
Aged 19, André made his international debut for France against Ireland in the 1954 Five Nations championship, playing on the wing in a team that within a few months would claim France's first championship title, albeit one they had to share with England and Wales. It was a momentous few months for les Bleus - midway through the Five Nations André was part of the first French team to beat New Zealand, winning 3-0 in Paris.

André was an regular fixture in the French XV until 1958, when a 0-14 defeat to England resulted in the "grande purge" which kept him off the international stage until 1961.

By this time, André's younger brother Guy had established himself in the French side. Guy, slighter, more fiery but no less physical and with slightly more natural talent than his elder brother, joined Mont-de-Marsan from in 1957, having been converted from hooker to centre at U.S. Montfortoise. They soon formed a formidable centre pairing at Stade Montois, attacking from deep, ball in hand, flicking short passes to each other to baffle and break through opposing defences. Guy earned the nickname 'Le Souris' for his ability to squeeze through the smallest hole in any defensive line. (André was known less poetically as 'Boni'). André usually played at inside centre with Guy outside him, but the brothers would often switch positions to further confuse the opposition. As Lourdes full back Georges Bernardet once said: “The most dangerous Boniface is the one without the ball”.

In 1959, Stade Montois reached the French championship final again, and although Guy scored a second-half try, les jaunes et noirs couldn't overcome the eight-point lead that Racing Club de France had established in the first period.

Brothers in blue
Guy made his international debut in a 16-8 win over Wales at Cardiff in 1960, but he would win another 12 caps before his brother joined him in the centre, for the first test of a New Zealand tour that saw the visitors lose all three tests. Their first test together was notable, however, as three sets of brothers took to the field – the Meads and the Clarkes turning out for the All Blacks against les Bonis.

After the tour, it was Guy's turn to fall out of favour with the international selectors, as he sat out the 1962 Five Nations while André helped the French to their third outright title in four years. The pair came back together for the so-so 1963 and 1964 tournaments, but it was on the domestic front that les frères found success in these years.

In 1963, Mont-de-Marsan reached their fourth French championship final. The club had won the Challenge Yves du Manoir cup competition in 1960, 61 and 62, but the big prize still eluded them. Captained by André Boniface, they looked like they'd miss out again when their great rivals Dax led the final 6-3. Stade Montois were also a man down after winger Christian Darrouy had been knocked out, but with No.8 Bernard Couralet covering on the wing, the seven-man Montois pack gained the upper hand. Alain and André Caillau (Stade's less famous set of brothers) were denied tries by the referee, but after 65 minutes, André Boniface tied the scores with a drop goal and five minutes from time, scrum-half Pierre Lestage siezed the win with a 20-metre drop goal. The Bouclier de Brennus was taken to Mont-de-Marsan for the first and only time.

The next year, Stade Montois finished runners-up in the FIRA European Clubs Cup, losing to Romania's Grivita Rosie in the final of this proto-Heineken Cup.

1966 and all that
Back on the international scene, the brothers finally established themselves as the first-choice centre partnership, playing together in all four games in the 1966 Five Nations, alongside 'le troisieme frère', utility back Jean Gachassin. Together, and encouraged in their early days by Dauger and French captain Jean Prat, the three had developed an exciting, adventurous and expansive counter-attacking style, the epitome of 'le rugby champagne', aided by Gachassin's mercurial skills and what some commentators saw as the invisible, almost telepathic, bond between André and Guy on the pitch. Their trademark moves were crossing passes, breaking down defences with a deft touch honed since childhood, and the pair popularised the scissor pass.

But the brothers' international careers were to come to a sudden end at the end of the 1966 tournament. France went to Cardiff on the final day of the championship needing a win to secure the title and mark their first unbeaten Five Nations, having beaten Ireland and England (Gachassin marking his move from wing to fly-half with three tries) and drawing 3-all at Murrayfield. Everything was going according to plan with France leading a tight game 8-0 and marching towards the title, when two penalties from Keith Bradshaw pulled Wales back into contention. With the clock ticking down, France were attacking deep in Wales’ half, when Gachassin spotted Guy bursting into the line from outside centre. The fly-half lobbed a long looping pass to the younger brother, only for Welsh winger Stuart Watkins to intercept and sprint 80 yards to score the decisive try.

Claude Lacaze almost pulled it out of the fire with a last-minute touchline penalty that fell agonisingly short, but the damage was done, and les freres paid the price two weeks later when they were left out of the French squad to face Italy in Naples.

The public reaction was astonishing. L’Equipe organised a collection from readers – who sent in a franc apiece – to send the brothers to the game as guests of honour. Newspapers at home and abroad received thousands of letters of complaint, including one from French interior minister Roger Frey, and legendary TV commentator Roger Couderc, the voice of French rugby, expressed his outrage at the treatment of the Boniface brothers.

Gachassin, who went on to win another 10 caps for France, defended his fateful pass. “Not to have gone for the gap that opened up would have been to deny rugby itself, our attacking variety of rugby,” he said. “The eternal French rugby, which belongs to the past, the present, and the future.”

France would win their first Grand Slam in Cardiff just two years later, powered by the forward-orientated game orchestrated by another set of brothers, half-backs Lillian and Guy Camberabero.

Tragic end
But Guy Boniface wouldn’t see his former team-mates take Europe’s top prize. On New Year’s Eve 1967, the car in which Boniface was travelling back from a friendly at Orthez left the road and hit a tree; 17 hours later Le Souris lost his fight for life.

A distraught André retired from playing rugby soon after, and turned his hand to coaching the youngsters at Stade Montois, sharing with them the secrets of the thrilling champagne rugby that won him and his brother 83 French caps between them, André playing 48 times (scoring 11 tries) and Guy 35 (scoring 14 tries). They played together only 18 times for France, but thanks to their uninhibited style of play and Guy’s untimely death, will always be remembered together, as les Freres Boni.

In 2000 Mont-de-Marsan’s Stade de la Barbe d’Or was renamed Stade Guy-Boniface, with André unveiling a statue of his brother outside the ground.

"It's difficult to explain what we felt between us, but I really felt it in my heart, and even more so now because of the accident," he said.

“Rugby and the family were a tradition of the south west. As soon as you were able to run and gallop about in a field, you played rugby.

“My luck was to have had a brother who played rugby with me.”