‘Sliding doors’ moments that changed Pau fullback Jack Maddocks’ life forever

A try scored by a fellow Australian halfway across the world brought Jack Maddocks to the shadow of the Pyrenees in 2021. This is what happened next

Waratahs’ second row Matt Philip may not realise the long-distance impact he had on the career of fellow Australian Jack Maddocks nearly five years ago.

Early June 6, 2021, in Australia. Maddocks sat in an airport waiting for a flight to France the morning after the Tahs had lost to Highlanders at the end of the Covid-hit 2021 season. 

He had been offered a contract to join Top 14 side Pau, and was ready to sign. But everything hinged on the result of the French side’s final match of the season at home against Montpellier, which was taking place while Maddocks was in the airport.

Pau — under then new-boss Sebastien Piqueronies, who had joined from the France under-20s set-up a few weeks earlier — had started the final weekend of that season 13th in the table, four points from safety. Only a bonus-point victory would give them a chance of hauling in 12th-placed Bayonne. Even then, they needed the Basque side to lose at home to Stade Francais.

The match at Bayonne’s Stade Jean Dauger was tight. Joris Segonds kicked three unanswered second-half penalties — the last in the 75th minute — to win the game for Stade Francais 9-12.

A little more than 100km to the east, Pau led Montpellier 34-25, but still needed one more score to grab the try-scoring bonus and claim 12th, to avoid a survival play-off against losing ProD2 finalists Biarritz. 

Enter Philip, whose second try of the game with his last touch of a ball in Pau colours came in the 80th minute. Antoine Hastoy converted, it finished 41-25, and Pau stayed in the Top 14.

“I remember sitting in a corner at the airport,” Maddocks said. “I hadn’t told anyone I was on the verge of signing in France. There was this complete shift in momentum in both games and [Pau] ended up winning in the last play that got the bonus-point try. That pretty much sealed it.

“If they’d gone down into the ProD2, I wouldn’t have signed. It’s funny how those sliding door moments can change your life so much.”

If anyone playing today recognises sliding doors’ moments, it’s Maddocks. He’d been on an upward rugby trajectory in Australia, making his debut at just 19, but felt increasingly disenchanted as the seasons went on. 

“I loved that experience — there’s nothing better than playing for your country,” he said. “But I’d done that, and then I almost got spat out of that system a little bit. I was at the Waratahs for a few years, and were struggling a lot — my last year there, we didn’t win a single game.

“I’d lost a bit of enthusiasm for the game, to be honest.” 

Once he’d made that pivotal fresh start decision, and Pau — the only French side to take a formal interest — had come up with a contract, all that remained was for them to stay in the Top 14, and for him to travel halfway around the world to sign it.

“I know that, my wife and I and our son will end up back in Australia — that’s home to us. But we were young, we said ‘let’s spread our wings a bit, leave the nest’. 

“We thought it’d be a good experience, and it has been. We’ve absolutely loved it. 

“I didn’t feel fulfilled about what was happening on the field at that time. So I just pivoted and said, ‘let’s chase some fulfilment off the field’. 

“French rugby has been amazing and has brought my passion back for the game and that enthusiasm I was maybe missing when I left Australia.”

Those weren’t the only sliding doors moments of 2021 for Maddocks. A fractured thumb in his first outing sidelined him for six weeks. Four matches into his comeback, he suffered what at first seemed to be a routine dead leg.

“Normally I’d be right in a few days or maybe a week, but the blood just never drained,” he said. “It ended up calcifying into bone.”

It was a potential career ender. “I went into a specialist in Paris, and he said these things can take between three and nine months. 

“I thought, that’s quite a big window. It was six months with no improvement. And, at that point, I’d almost come to terms with the fact that I’d probably never play again. It was quite scary. 

“But at the same time, in a weird way, that year was, maybe the most enjoyable year of my life in terms of if I’m not going to fulfil what I want to on the field, I’m going to try and tick boxes off it.

“I gave myself two goals that year. One was to learn as much French as I could. I really dived into that, so I wouldn’t look back on it as a wasted year. I put a lot of time into my French. 

“The other was to travel as much as we could. Living in Europe was new to us, and we had the opportunity to do so much travel that we didn’t have in Australia. 

“So every second weekend, the boys would play away — I’d finish training on a Friday morning and we’d go to Rome for the weekend. We’d go to London, Dublin, we’d go down to Spain. It was amazing. It was actually such a good time — in contrast to on the field.

“I look back at that time with fond memories — even little things like going to the bakery in the morning and saying, ‘Can I please have a baguette?’ in French, and being understood — that stuff was such a thrill because we’d only been there a few months.”

On the pitch, things were less certain. Maddocks wasn’t sure if he was going to play again, wasn’t sure, if he did get back on the pitch he would be re-signed at Pau. It could easily have been a much darker period.

“There was a bit of laying in bed at three in the morning looking at the ceiling and wondering if things were ever going to get better,” he said. 

“But one thing which I am grateful for was it gave me a kick up the arse to do some studying. I’ve done a degree and a Masters now, which I wouldn’t have done, I don't think otherwise, because when I left Australia, I had no study behind me. 

“In hindsight, it was almost a blessing in disguise.”

He started playing again at the beginning of the 2022/23 season. By December, he had signed a contract extension at Stade du Hameau. “When we recruited Jack, I was convinced we had made a brilliant signing,” coach Piqueronies, said at the time. “I was sure I hadn’t made a mistake. It just took an extra year. ”

The respect is mutual. “He’s great,” Maddocks said of his coach. “I’d heard a lot of stories from boys I knew in Australia who had played in France. Everyone says, ‘French [coaches] are mad – one day they're over the moon, the next they're angry — you never know what you're going to get’.”

But that’s not Piqueronies, he insisted. “The first thing is that he's a very good man. He's honest. He's a nice guy. He understands his players and he knows how to get the best out of them. As a player, I’m grateful for playing for someone who I enjoy playing for, who I like as a person. I think that always brings the best out of you as a player when you're aligned with your coach. 

“In terms of rugby, he has a clear idea on how he wants to play, but he also allows his assistants a lot of rein to coach as well. He puts a lot of trust in those people around him, which is nice.”

Fast forward five years from Maddocks near-aborted arrival. Pau head into the 18th round of the season second in the table. They host third-placed Bordeaux on Sunday night, knowing a win would keep them hanging on the coat-tails of leaders Toulouse.

“Sometimes these processes take time,” he said of Pau’s charge up the league, which has taken irregular watchers of the Top 14 by surprise. “He [Piqueronies] invested in a few young players. With a bit more experience and age, those guys have started to prosper and flourish on the big stage. 

“I had a friend text me the other day who doesn’t follow French rugby closely, and he said, ‘oh my God, look at the ladder. You guys are second’. A lot of people are surprised by that.”

There’s no great secret, he insisted. “We’ve matured as a team. We had a few results in my earlier years here, where we surprised some people — when it was 3pm and it was a beautiful day, we could surprise a few people. 

“But now we've got more layers to the way we play. We can win ugly. We can win pretty. We’re more developed as a team in that aspect. To be a real challenger, you need to be able to do that. You can't just sort of be a flat track bully, as we say in Australia. You need to be a bit more adaptable and have different ways of winning. That’s definitely a sign of maturity.”

Maddocks turned 29 in February, but he’s one of the old men of Pau’s young and thrilling back line — which includes France’s fully-fledged Six Nations internationals Theo Attissogbe, Fabien Brau-Boirie, and Emilien Gailleton. Not one of them is older than 22.

He’s embracing his ‘veteran role’. “There are times I love their enthusiasm and that fearlessness. Sometimes, that's contagious and we run along with that. And then sometimes I feel, as someone who is a bit older and more experienced, I need to put my opinion forward a bit stronger when I feel we’re running a bit too far. 

“But, the last thing I want to be is that boring old granddad who is always killing their vibe. That enthusiasm is so important at times, it’s just about managing it.”

The goal at the start of the season was top six. With single-figure matches remaining Maddocks — who could start at 13 for the second match in a row against Bordeaux — reckons the remainder of the season will take care of itself, no matter the result on Sunday.

“We were quite clear on what our goals were at the start of the season, which was to make the top six, and we haven’t reassessed. Every week our focus is on the game ahead rather than long-term planning. 

“The club’s never played in the finals before, so top six would have to be seen as a successful season.”