His father, Ferruccio Dante Spanghero, emigrated from Friuli, arriving in France in the 1930s to make a living as a bricklayer.

They run a farm in the village of Bram, and Ferrucio played in the rugby union local team.

They had eight children together, two daughter, Maryse and Annie, and six boys, Laurent, Jean-Marie, Walter, Claude, Guy et Gilbert.

Ten years captain of the club, Spanghero fail to win any championship, losing his only final in 1974 on a Béziers drop at the siren.

Playing in a non-professional era, Spanghero worked in a Carcassonne bank, then he created a car location company.

A lock at the beginning, Walter Spanghero quickly show a great polyvalence on all forward position, from number 8 to winger.

Walter Spanghero works on his physical condition on a daily basis, not hesitating to run 10 kilometers in summer, returning home in a car deliberately left out in the sun.

Colin Meads, a New Zealand international, admires him: "He's a clean player who's on the ball all the time, good at line-outs and hard as teck".