 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 14 December 1993 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place of birth | Colombes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 72 kg (159 lb) [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Anne-Cécile Ciofani (born 14 December 1993) is a French rugby player. [2] She was awarded World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year for 2021. [3] [4]
She discovered rugby at age 18 when she started studying Science and technology of physical and sports activities (STAPS), while she practiced the heptathlon:
With my speed skills, I knew I could do it. The opportunity to reach the very highest level pushed me as much as the practice.
Six months after her debut, however, she is summoned to the Elite Center of Marcoussis, but is only selected in the national team in 2018. [5]
In 2018, when she finished her first year as a professional player at AC Bobigny, she became vice-champion of the world of rugby 7 with the France team. She scored a test on the last action in the game against Australia, Olympic champion, which qualified France in the final and was elected best new player of the world tournament. [6]
She came from a sporting family, both parents participated in Olympiads, her father Walter Ciofani in the hammer throw in Los Angeles in 1984, and her Cameroonian mother Jeanne Ngo Minyemeck in women's shot put and the women's discus throw at Seoul in 1988. Her sisters Juliette (Junior French Champion) and Audrey Ciofani (French Champion Hope and Vice Elite Champion) are athletes at the hammer throw and licensed at the Athletic Circle of Montreuil 93. [7]
In 2022, Ciofani married Geoffray Durbant, who is a professional footballer. [8]
Rugby union in France is a popular team sport. Rugby union was first introduced in the early 1870s by British residents, which makes the country one of the few early exponents of the sport. Elite French clubs participate in the professional domestic club league, the Top 14. Clubs also compete in the European knock-out competition, the European Rugby Champions Cup, which replaced the Heineken Cup from 2014 to 2015.
The France women's national rugby union team represents France in women's international rugby union. They played the first-ever women's rugby union test match against the Netherlands on 13 June 1982. They compete annually in the Women's Six Nations Championship and have placed third in seven of nine Rugby World Cup's.
Ciofani is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
The France national under-20 rugby union team, also known as France under-20s or France U20(s), is the national under-20 rugby union team of France, under the control of the French Rugby Federation. Competing in the annual Six Nations Under 20s Championship, it is considered to be the feeder team for the France national team.
The World Rugby SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is a series of international rugby sevens tournaments for women's national teams run by World Rugby. The inaugural series was held in 2012–13 as the successor to the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup held the previous season. The competition has been sponsored by banking group HSBC since 2015.
Virimi Vakatawa is a New Zealand-born French professional rugby union player who plays as a centre or a wing for Bristol Bears and the French national team.
Danièle Irazu is a former French international rugby player, native of the Basque country, and player for the France women's national rugby union team. She was part of France's women's rugby team, at the 2006 Women's Rugby World Cup.
Shaunagh Jordan Brown is a former English rugby union player and former hammer thrower. In rugby union she represented England and Harlequins Women until her retirement in December 2022. She made her debut for the England national team in 2017 against Canada. Brown represented England in the hammer throw event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and has also worked as a gas engineer, firefighter, and commercial diver.
Audrey Forlani is a French rugby union player who has made at least 47 appearances for the France women's national rugby union team. At club level, she plays for French women's Premier Division club Blagnac.
Aurélie Groizeleau is a French rugby union referee and former player, who has officiated at international level since 2018. As a player, she made five appearances for the France women's national rugby union team and five appearances for the France women's national rugby sevens team.
Geoffray Steven Durbant is a professional footballer who plays as a forward. Born in metropolitan France, he plays for the Guadeloupe national team.
Marcos Moneta is an Argentine rugby sevens player. He made his debut appearance at the Olympics representing Argentina at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Moneta received World Rugby's Men's Sevens Player of the Year award for 2021.
Chloé Pelle is a French international rugby union and rugby sevens player who has played for RC Chilly-Mazarin as a wing since 2020 and for the France women's national rugby union team since 2011.
Clara Joyeux is a French international rugby union player. She competed at the 2019 Women's Rugby Super Series and at the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Women's Six Nations Championship's. She also competed at the 2021 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
Lina Queyroi is a French rugby union player who plays for Blagnac SCR and the France women's national rugby union team.
Laure Touyé is a French rugby union player who plays for Montpellier and the France women's national rugby union team.
Émilie Boulard is a French rugby union player who plays for the France women's national rugby union team as a full-back. She won the International Rugby Players Women’s Try of the Year at the 2021 World Rugby Awards.
Emeline Gros is a French rugby union player who plays for FC Grenoble Amazones and the France women's national rugby union team.
Léa Murie is a French international rugby union player, playing as a winger.
The 2024 Women's Six Nations Championship, known as the Guinness Women's Six Nations for sponsorship purposes except in France where due to alcohol sponsorship prohibitions the tournament was unsponsored, was the 23rd series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union competition between England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It began on 23 March and ended on 27 April 2024.
This article incorporates text available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
