The movable feast that is Le Rugby's celebration of French rugby's journeymen catches up with Argentinian legend and place kicker par excellence Gonzalo Quesada

In the second of a series of exciting articles celebrating the journeymen of French rugby, we look at another player who's had more jerseys than a Channel Island cattle farmer. This week's hero can't rival Argentino-Italian fly half Ramiro Pez in terms of the number of maillots he's worn, but he has played for more clubs in France. Le Rugby turns the spotlight onto a man whose career resembles a world tour of l'Ovalie. Vamos Gonzalo Quesada!

Born in Buenos Aires in 1974, Le Roi du Nez spent a substantial part of his early days wearing the number 10 shirt of Hindú Club. First capped in 1996, he was still playing for his local club when he represented the Pumas (so called due to a journalist mistaking the jaguar on their crest for a puma) in the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

This proved to be a successful tournament for both player and country. The nail-biting 28-24 win over Ireland in the quarter-final play-off was celebrated throughout the rugby world and proved to be a big marker for Los Pumas, who went on to lose to France in the last eight. Quesada's personal tally of 102 points was a tournament best and the new-found attention – partly also due to the amount of time it took ‘Speedy Gonzalo’ to line up place kicks - saw him leave home to begin a nomadic life in France.

His first stop was Narbonne. He spent three happy years at the Parc des Sports et de l'Amitié, when les Narbonnais were an established, competitive top flight outfit (how times have changed). The highlight of his stay down on the Mediterranean was the club's run in the 2001 European Challenge Cup. Having progressed through a group containing Bourgoin and Viadana, les orange et noir saw off USAP and Agen in the knockout stages to set up a final against Harlequins in front of 11,500 supporters at Reading's Madejski Stadium. Over a 1000 of these had made the long trip up from southern France on overnight coaches, only to see their heroes lose a 42-33 heartbreaker in extra time, despite Quesada's deadly boot contributing 18 points.

Worse was to follow for the Narbonne faithful as Quesada made the switch to bitter Top 16 rivals Beziers in June 2002, a cardinal sin if ever there was one. His first season at the Stade de la Méditerranée was a huge disappointment, and included a 32-26 defeat at Narbonne in a game that saw him subjected to torrid abuse from his previously adoring fans. Beziers were lucky not to be relegated as they finished in 15th place, being saved only due to the demotion of Begles-Bordeaux on the grounds of financial decadence. He also spent the 2003-04 season at Beziers, with les Bitterois this time bagging a healthier eighth place finish and our man notching 138 points. However, this would be the start of a period that saw Gonzalo play for four clubs in four seasons.

Paris would be the next stop, as Quesada headed north in the summer of 2004 to link up with fellow Pumas Agustin Pichot, Ignacio Corleto, Juan Martin Hernandez and Lucas Borges. His season at the Stade Jean-Bouin was a productive one that saw Stade Francais end the regular season on top of the pile that had now become the Top 14, only to lose the championship final to Biarritz in a 37-34 extra time briseur de coeur at a sold-out Stade de France.

One season with the notoriously polite and patient Parisiens was enough, and saw our man heading back to l'Ovalie to ink a deal with Pau at the beginning of the 2005/06 season. His time spent at the Stade du Hameau was undoubtedly the low point of his career. A 13th place finish was a huge disappointment for such an established Top 14 club, and condemned Section Paloise to life down amongst les hommes morts in Pro D2.

Quesada was sur son vélo once again in the summer of 2006, this time heading east to cash-rich Toulon in their latest effort to buy promotion to the Top 14. He did his job, scoring 177 points and helping the team to a fourth place finish, enough to secure a semi-final clash with La Rochelle. In a hard fought encounter, les Toulonnais were edged out 21-17 in a game that marked the end of Quesada's tour around French rugby. He penned a deal soon after to return to his native Hindú Club, where he still plays to this day.

But his influence on French rugby doesn't end there. Quesada is currently kicking coach to the French national team, and in a recent presidential campaign at the Narbonne club, one candidate promised to install the former orange-et-noir favourite as coach if he won.

On the international scene, Quesada won 38 caps and scored 486 points. He made his test debut at the age of 22 against the United States in 1996, and won his last cap against Ireland in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Along with the likes of Hugo Porta, Felipe Contepomi and Juan Martin Hernandez he's rightly acknowledged as one of the great Argentinian fly halves.

Not many players have single-handedly changed the laws of the game, but it has been suggested that his habit of taking 90 seconds or more to line up kicks prompted the 2000 law that gave kickers just 60 seconds to kick at goal. Equally, not many rugby players have their own website, but our man does at www.gonzaloquesada.com.

One of the deadliest kickers and most consistent performers for both club and country, it's certainly a case of Allez Gonzalo Quesada!