Mike Tadjer

Of all the kickers who lined up in France, it wasn’t the Sextons, Farrells or even Pollards that truly captured the imagination; it was the sixteen-stone Portuguese hooker. Mike Tadjer was the hero the Rugby World Cup needed.

After helping Portugal make Rugby World Cup history by beating Fiji 24-23, Mike Tadjer was asked, while carrying his two children, Sandro (3) and Andrea (6), how he felt. “Well, obviously, I can die tomorrow.”

The clearance-kicking hooker, born in France to a Syrian mother and Portuguese father, was the cult hero of the Rugby World Cup. Antoine Dupont and the Irish army never made it past the quarters, Fiji likewise, and the iconic status of Siya Kolisi is now just accepted, so it fell to the, then relatively unknown, 34-year-old to win hearts and minds.

He was born in Massy, France, just south of Paris. A place of little note, Nicolas Appert – the inventor of canning – is Massy’s favourite son, or at least he was until Mike came along some 270 years later.   The rugby club is the beating heart of the town, with RC Massy having played in the ProD2 and produced the likes of Seku Macalou, Cameron Woki and Mathieu Bastereaud. Naturally, the club is where Mike’s story begins. “Like most kids of a young age, soccer was my first love,” he tells Rugby Journal. “But, growing up near the Massy club around the age of fifteen or sixteen, I first discovered rugby – and being a big guy for my age it was clear to me my skillset was more suited to the scrum than it was the football pitch!

“Like many,” he continues, “I was lucky that one of my secondary school teachers was a rugby coach and he inspired us as kids to take up the sport – helping with lifts, explaining the game etc and introducing us to Massy RC. 

“I started at No.8 but for those that have seen me play you’ll know I wasn’t the fastest, so it became obvious that the front row was my natural home. I’d move from tighthead to hooker and so on at youth age, despite always wanting to be one of those pacy 10s or 12s getting the headlines in the backline! 

“But somehow once you’ve played as a prop or hooker,” he considers, “you kind of get bitten with the brotherhood of the front row, the history of the position and almost its romance. It takes a special kind of madman to play there and I felt right at home immediately.”

Mike had been playing at Massy for some seven seasons (with a one-year sojourn to Racing 92 in 2008) when Portugal came knocking on his door after hearing of the hooker’s potential dual nationality. “I had returned to Massy after a year with Racing and the call came – ‘how would you fancy playing for Portugal?’,” he explains. “My first reaction was, ‘well, surely Portugal is a soccer country!?’ But after that, I leapt at the chance, knowing that I’d have the chance to play in the Rugby Europe tournaments and beyond. I’ve never regretted that decision.”

It gave him a chance to connect to the land of his father. “I admit I am probably a little more French than I am Portuguese,” he says. “But the contact with my father’s homeland had always been there, we’d take family holidays during August for a month with my grandparents and other family members. So, I had strong links and a genuine fascination with the country and that part of my heritage. I guess I’d say that even though I didn’t grow up there, I learned the values and the wonderful culture of the country so it’s a really important part of my DNA.

“Somehow once you’ve played as a prop or a hooker you kind of get bitten with the brotherhood of the front row, the history of the position and almost its romance. It takes a special kind of madman to play there, and I felt at home.”

“Rugby in Portugal is the pastime of the rich, that’s for sure. It’s not like football where you have that ‘jumpers for goalposts’ street culture. It’s similar to Chile or Argentina where rugby is developed in the country clubs of the wealthy, so while I was moving into that culture it was always a little strange as I had a quite modest upbringing.”

Whereas Mike had very much come from a fifteens, front-row perspective, he was joining a country where the abridged game was prevalent in many ways. “Sevens is the bedrock of Portuguese Rugby and it tends to be the case that players move into long form rugby via initial interest in short form,” he explains. “In fact, Portugal consistently do well on the European Sevens circuit, and the annual Madeira tournament is a key part of that. Again, I was unusual here as I’d played exclusively long form as a forward, so that also gave me a perspective and some experiences that I could bring back into the Portugal national side in terms of forward play and so on.”

That Portugal even made it to the Rugby World Cup was an achievement, securing their spot with a 16-16 draw with the USA at the Final Qualification Tournament in Dubai. “Rugby is still a backwater in Portugal,” says Mike. “Even after our World Cup qualifying performances we hardly got a mention in the newspapers and sports journals, but that is starting to change a little bit. 

“In a soccer-mad country, the home of CR7 and so on, football is always the dominant topic,” explains Mike. “But after we beat Fiji we started to see the stories published about our journey – nobody had realised we could play like that and win against the bigger teams – so slowly but surely the coverage started to increase and that made us very proud when we saw our rugby achievements being published next to the headlines of Cristiano, Pepe and Figo.”

One of the features of the Portugal World Cup campaign was how the rugby-watching public embraced the colourful and impressive personalities of their team. The likes of Nicholas Martins, Jeronimo Portela and Raffaele Storti became rugby household names, as did Mike. “For sure, we had players that attracted the attention of the media and became quite relatable as people,” he says. “Our skipper, Tomas Appleton, a dentist in his day job, has become the most famous orthodontist in the country! But above all I feel it was the way we played on the pitch that really captured those hearts.

Portugal’s head coach, the mercurial former France wing Patrice Lagisquet, observed during the RWC: “These players are really generous, capable of playing the width of the pitch. The Portuguese championship has less structure but the speed and the width is great and they have fantastic and gifted players.” 

For many though, the reaction to Portugal’s style is to believe they are simply a team moulded in Lagisquet’s way, attacking and running in unstructured chaos. They finished the pool stages ranking seventh for runs, fifth for offloads and sixth for clean breaks, but it runs deeper than that. Many of the players have grown up together, forging playing bonds that assist them in the tight cauldrons of Test rugby. Lagisquet cited the match-winning try against Fiji as a key illustration of this relationship with Storti and Rodrigo Marta, two guys that had played together from the age of six, combining to send Marta over.

Frustrations still abound around the Os Lobos journey. There is a tinge of disappointment as the forthcoming establishment of the new World League starting in 2026 will deprive Portugal of the chance to compete against Fiji, Wales, or Australia outside of Rugby World Cups. These opportunities, already scarce, will cease to exist completely under the new framework. Portugal and other nations striving to enhance their skills will be confined to playing solely against Tier Two teams until 2030, vying for a solitary promotion spot to the elite level. Unfortunately, the Six Nations will remain exclusive and inaccessible for Portugal and other aspiring nations, something that disappoints all involved in Portuguese rugby. “Our players have earned the right to be competing against the finest global competitors rather than watching with our noses pressed against the shop window,” says Mike. “It is crucial for the sport to include Portugal and other teams that have shown our exceptional potential in the Rugby World Cup, rather than excluding them. This is the only way for the sport to expand its influence beyond its current boundaries. If there ever was a moment to enhance the global presence of rugby union, it is undoubtedly now and that means including the teams that have proven their worth.”

“After we beat Fiji we started to see the stories about our journey - nobody had realised we could win against the bigger teams - we saw our rugby achievements being published next to the headlines of Cristiano, Pepe and Figo.”

But being the underdog can also inspire. “This inequity tends to motivate us,” continues Mike. “When you play for the top-tier nations you know there’s always another opportunity but for us that wasn’t the case. For us, it might be that in the World Cup in France this could have been our only opportunity to showcase our skills and, for me personally, it was both the first and the last chance to demonstrate to all just how far we’ve progressed. However, knowing that the door is temporarily closed for progression due to the new WR structure is annoying, I have to admit.”

Mike retired after the Fiji game although his exit, after 77 minutes with his side still chasing the points needed for a win, led to the most anxious of finales. “It was the three longest minutes of my life,” he says. “It felt like three hours but I can recall almost every moment and the whole confusion of emotions we went through. We’d lost a few close games like that by a point or two before and that does sow seeds of doubt, especially in a young and emerging side, but this time we were clever in how we played. 

“We knew Fiji were absolutely knackered, staying narrow in their line as the fatigue set in and it was Storti who saw they were slow to cover the defence on the short side so he went down the blind at pace, setting up Marta for the score. It almost happened in slow motion for me watching, but the key takeout was how Raffaele had learned to scan and read what was happening in a real-time match situation and how he reacted once he’d spotted that weakness. That’s the sort of thing that happens as you grow as a team together and perhaps before the Rugby World Cup he might have been slower to react to that situation in front of him.

“The Fijian boys were very gracious in defeat,” he continues. “They’d got the point needed to make sure of quarter-final qualification but also they recognised we were on a similar journey, albeit not as advanced as they were in terms of our status in the game. I know Simon Raiwalui fairly well after spending some time with him at Racing 92 and he told me how proud he was to watch our success, and that we were fully deserving of our win, typical of Simon’s attitude and humility. It was a pretty special moment to share with one of Fiji’s greatest rugby men.”

Then, of course, there was ‘that kick’ – a nonchalant raking touch-finder that delighted the crowd as 118 kilos of hooker connected with Gilbert rugby ball with the most perfect thump, to clear his lines and to get his side back up to the half way line: “In truth I found myself in the backfield late in the match and I was a little bit tired – on my straps as they say,” he chuckles. “There was no way I had the energy to run it back and I was worried, being a bit isolated, about getting turned over. So, I just thought I’d give my Portuguese football heritage a little showcase. And the moment I struck it I knew it was good, it’s like hitting a great golf swing and you hear and feel you’ve timed it right. 

“I’d had some boots made especially for the Rugby World Cup – one green and one red – from my boot people. As a hooker you don’t expect to give exposure like that, so I was quite happy that it happened and that people also noticed those boot colours.”

Despite initially declaring his retirement after that game, Mike has announced, at the time of writing, he’s returning for a season with RC Massy, after spending the last two years with Perpignan. It brings his career full circle, having also made stops at Agen, Brive, Grenoble, Clermont and Montauban. 

However, there is the small matter of his business down in the south of France, a thriving beachside restaurant that he set up during his time playing and now a key focus of his life, one where he uses his leadership skills learned in rugby to manage his team. “It’s a lovely spot overlooking the Med,” he says. “It’s key in any team environment that the skipper, or in my case now, the boss, doesn’t see himself above the rest of the people. I am there to support them, to do the heavy work of getting the suppliers sorted, making sure the takings are right and so on. 

“It was the three longest minutes of my life, it felt like three hours. We’d lost a few close games by a point or two before and that does sow the seeds of doubt, but this time we were clever in how we played.”

“Every morning I get there for 7am – we get the food, always fresh, arriving and it’s key then to get your planning right for the evening. We are pretty serious about the produce we serve – I meet with the chef every morning to get the menu right and to make sure we’re offering the finest food.

“We try to be the best for our customers – we’ve got a great spot on the beach for chilling out, to think and to rejuvenate. I’m very active in meeting the clients – it’s so important to have that connectivity and it’s key that I front up and understand their needs so we’re always improving.

“I know I’m never going to find the immediate rugby pressure I’ve experienced on the pitch outside of the sport, but the Beach Restaurant is good pressure; I want to motivate the staff to be the best they can and be absolutely open and honest with them, exactly as you are within the rugby environment and I see this as my fifteen-year project, something that my wife does with me and a project I want to see grow. After all, I’m a half-French, half-Portuguese front-row forward so you might expect me to have a big appreciation of my food.

Looking ahead, the big hooker believes it’s now crucial for Portugal to use their shift in France as a springboard. And with the announcement that Os Lobos are to face England A at Welford Road during the Six Nations, he believes that they’re in a position to continue to impress the rugby world. “My real hope is to see young players, of all social backgrounds, picking up a rugby ball in Portugal,” he says. “It’s about those youngsters and inspiring them to follow in our footsteps and to continue the legacy that we’ve created.

“Choose rugby, choose to enjoy it and choose to learn its culture,” he sums up. “By enlightening those youngsters, who knows what the possibilities are? Maybe in five or six years we can really upset those big teams. Rugby is a very structural sport and with good organisation and fitness it’s amazing what you can do, especially with the natural talent we have in our country. I want to see us target one of those big scalps – England, Australia, France – give them a bloody nose and make history for our rugby.”

But it’s going to take more than passion, which doesn’t pay the bills. “Our biggest challenge is financing our journey and that remains a huge issue,” he says. “Attracting the big sponsors for rugby in a country that’s football crazy isn’t easy. The federation isn’t wealthy like others and the money currently is the missing part to create resilience in our game and to build a big interest and appropriate domestic structure. But for now, this won’t stop the immediate progression of Os Lobos. We’ve done some amazing work to get where we are and we’ve now got the carrot of the match against England A and beyond.”

And, despite the temptation, he’ll be there purely as a fan. “I will be there at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in February to cheer my former teammates on, of that you can be absolutely sure,” he says. “My kids will be with me as they are aware of my journey and are already enchanted with our great sport and it will be fun to share a game with my family for once.

“I just hope that we can continue to thrill and to capture the hearts and minds of the rugby public in the way we play the game and the manner in which we embrace the culture of the sport,” says Mike. “It’s been my proudest moment wearing the red and green and I cannot wait to watch the next generation of Portuguese players taking our achievements to new and even greater heights.”

Story by James While

Pictures by  Hassan Omar Wamwayi, PA Images & Getty Images

This extract was taken from issue 24 of Rugby.
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