Philippe Georges Saint-André ([fi.lip ʒɔʁʒ sɛ̃.t‿ɑ̃.dʁe]; born 19 April 1967) is a former French rugby union footballer and was most recently the manager of Top 14 side Montpellier.
Nicknamed Le Goret ("the piglet")[3] for his shuffling style of running, Saint-André began his rugby career at US Romanaise before joining AS Montferrand in 1988.
Saint-André fielded the kick and began a counter-attack that ended in a spectacular try to fullback Jean-Luc Sadourny, securing a memorable 23–20 victory.
[3] He was captain for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, of which France finished third in the tournament, which included a narrow 19–15 loss to hosts South Africa in the Semi-final, before beating England in the Third-place play-off 19–9.
Saint-André's coaching career began in 1998 when he took up the position of Director of Rugby at Gloucester haven served 2 years there as a player.
However, Gloucester did top their pool in the Heineken Cup, where they made it to the semi-final, losing 19–15 to Leicester Tigers, haven beaten Cardiff in the Quarter-final 21–15.
In his final season in charge, Gloucester returned to the top four of the table, though, Philippe Saint-André parted ways with the team in February 2002 ahead of schedule.
[8][9] He was however responsible for Gloucester winning all their pool matches in the European Challenge Cup, and taking them out of the quarter finals, beating Ebbw Vale 46–11.
But yet again his tenure came to an abrupt end when he was sacked in January 2004 after he admitted that he was a candidate to succeed Steve Hansen as coach of Wales.
In his first season, Sale finished third in the table, which meant they would face London Wasps in the Semi finals, but lost 43–22.
[11] Almost exactly a year later, after finishing on top of the table during the regular Premiership season, Sale won their first English play-off championship with a 45–20 victory over Leicester at Twickenham.
[14] After nearly two months of speculation on where Saint-André would go next, French club Toulon announced that they had signed him as sporting president, starting his duties officially on 1 July 2009.
In August 2011 it was announced that Saint-André would replace Lièvremont as head coach of France after the 2011 Rugby World Cup, thus finishing his tenure with Toulon.
[1] Saint-André was present at the club while some big names were signed, the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, Felipe Contepomi and Pierre Mignoni.
Although the French reached the final of the 2011 World Cup, their campaign would also be remembered for the disharmony that marred relations between Marc Lièvremont and the players.
Many youngsters take up the game because of what they see in the team and inspirational players like Thierry Dusautoir, and we must make sure this image is always good.
[18]He also tried to persuade the French Rugby Federation to fall in line with the Home Unions and allow France a full two weeks to prepare for the Six Nations.
France did gain some revenge during their 2014 November campaign, when they beat Australia 29–26, though they later went on to lose to Argentina for the first time on home soil since 2007, 18–13.
During the 2015 Rugby World Cup, it was reported that the players launched a "mutiny" against Philippe Saint-André following France's 24–9 loss to Ireland.
[22] It was reported that the players coached themselves in the lead up to their quarter-final clash with New Zealand, which saw the end to Saint-André's tenure with France, following a record defeat of 62–13 in Cardiff.