Nicolas Durand

Nicolas Durand (born 4 October 1982 in Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) is a French rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 footballer who plays scrum-half for Racing Métro in France's Top 14 competition. His first professional club was Toulouse

Stade Toulousain

Stade Toulousain, also referred to as Toulouse, is a French rugby union club from Toulouse in Midi-Pyrénées. Toulouse is one of the finest rugby clubs in Europe, having won the Heineken Cup four times – in 1996, 2003, 2005 and 2010. They were also runners-up in 2004 and 2008 against London Wasps...

 whom he played for in 2002. From 2002 until 2004 he played for Béziers

AS Béziers Hérault

Association Sportive Béziers Hérault, often referred to by rugby media simply by its location of Béziers, is a French rugby union club preparing to return to the second tier of the country's professional rugby system, Pro D2. They earned promotion as 2011 Fédérale 1 champions...

. Upon their relegation to Pro D2

Rugby Pro D2

Rugby Pro D2, also known as Pro D2 is the second level of domestic club rugby union in France, below the first division, Top 14. The competition was introduced in 2000. There is relegation and promotion between both the Top 14 and Fédérale 1, the third-level competition...

 after the 2003–04 season, he moved to Perpignan

USA Perpignan

Union Sportive des Arlequins Perpignanais or Unió eSportiva Arlequins de Perpinyà , generally abbreviated as USAP in both languages, is a French rugby union club that plays in the city of Perpignan in Pyrénées-Orientales. The club currently competes in the Top 14, the top level of the French...

, where he played for six seasons before arriving in Paris for the 2010–11 season

2010–11 Top 14 season

The 2010–11 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby . Home-and-away play began on August 13, 2010 and continued through April 2011. The regular season was followed by a three-round playoff starting in May that involved the top...

.

Durand has played age grade level representative rugby for France's Under 18, Under 19, and Under 21 teams. He has also played twice for France

France A national rugby union team

The France A national rugby union team, known previously as France XV national rugby union team and France B national rugby union team, are the second national rugby union team behind the French national side.-History:...

. In May 2007 he was selected for France

France national rugby union team

The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...

's Test

Test match (rugby union)

Test match in rugby union is a match recognised as being a full international match by at least one of the participating teams' governing bodies. It is an unofficial but widely used term in the sport....

 squad to play the All Blacks in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, and made his Test début against the All Blacks on 2 June 2007.