Jean-Baptiste Élissalde (born 23 November 1977 in La Rochelle, France) is a French rugby union footballer. He is a third-generation France international, as his maternal grandfather Laurent Bidart and father Jean-Pierre Élissalde both represented France in international rugby. Élissalde is capable of playing either as a scrum-half or as a fly-half. He played in La Rochelle until 2002 then decided to go to Toulouse, where he initially had a hard t...
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Jean-Baptiste Élissalde (born 23 November 1977 in La Rochelle, France) is a French rugby union footballer. He is a third-generation France international, as his maternal grandfather Laurent Bidart and father Jean-Pierre Élissalde both represented France in international rugby. Élissalde is capable of playing either as a scrum-half or as a fly-half. He played in La Rochelle until 2002 then decided to go to Toulouse, where he initially had a hard time breaking into the senior squad, competing against Frédéric Michalak and Yann Delaigue.
Now he is the first-choice scrumhalf at Toulouse and is competing with Biarritz Olympique's Dimitri Yachvili for the number 9 shirt in the French national team. He was notably the best French scorer during the 2004 Grand Slam and also scored 36 points.
Élissalde was a member of the Toulouse teams that won the Heineken Cup twice in 2003 and in 2005, and the Top 14-winning team of 2008. He is considered one of the best goalkickers in France and kicked the...
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