The French star is taking a break from celebrity, writes Rupert Guinness.
FREDERIC MICHALAK is seated at the table waiting for dinner to be served. To kill time he entertains himself by flicking a piece of bread at Fabien Pelous, who is sitting nearby. He flicks another, then another and another … As each piece strikes, the more Michalak is amused by the sight of his captain becoming only gradually annoyed.
How much can the big guy take, the then 21-year-old Michalak wonders, despite Pelous's requests for him to stop. So what does Michalak do? He continues … flick, flick, flick.
Suddenly Pelous snaps. Furious, he raises his 198-centimetre, 111-kilogram frame and lunges, with fork in hand, at Michalak, who may be swift with his pass, step and kick, but not swift enough on this occasion.
Pelous lands the fork bang into Michalak's hand.
Five years on, Michalak, 25, laughs when he is reminded of Pelous stabbing him on the eve of a Heineken Cup match when both Frenchmen were playing for Stade Toulousain - nearly forcing Michalak to miss the game.
The anecdote is part of French rugby folklore as an example of the typical daring that a five-eighth such as Michalak will draw on to let off steam within the team he first played for in 1998 as a 16-year-old star on the rise.
"You have to joke around a bit. These stories … there are a lot. At Toulouse especially," Michalak says in Sydney this week. He is quick to add, however, that he has toned down his antics since joining the Durban-based Sharks in the Super 14 this season.
"Here, there are less [such anecdotes]," Michalak says, explaining that's because "I am still new … "
The Michalak who will grace the Sydney Football Stadium for the Sharks' clash with the Waratahs tonight is a vastly different player from the one that left France after last year's World Cup to escape the pressures of his stardom at home.
In the Super 14, he is a footballer wanting to embrace a new lifestyle and language as much as a new version of rugby.
In France, he is more than a two-time World Cup hero with 50 Test caps to his name. He is also a model - most notoriously posing nude in a magazine and calendar shoot five years ago. With his dark, Latin good looks, he's one of France's hottest properties with sponsors.
For one sponsor, he is an ambassador in South Africa. This involves coaching the Ses'Khona Rugby Club - a local Durban team made up of black children who have just started playing rugby - twice a month.
He says he enjoys the chance to "share the valours of rugby" with children. Running around a muddy Durban paddock - often in bare feet - with less privileged children brings back fond memories of when he first joined the ecole de rugby at Stade Toulousain as a seven-year-old.
"For them, it is what it was like for me when I was young. Without rugby I don't know what I would be doing today," he says.
Back in France, life became suffocating for Michalak. It was a far cry from growing up as one of four children near Toulouse, and living with his bricklayer father, Serge, after his parents separated when he was seven.
"For me in France, it is hard to go out because people recognise me. Whereas in South Africa, I go practically unrecognised. It becomes difficult [to handle the attention in France]. It is for that reason I left," Michalak says.
He has not left everything in France, though. He may have had to swap a Mercedes coupe for a Volkswagen Polo, but his love of rap music is the same - and one he indulges in his Durban apartment in the well-to-do suburb of Umhlanga Rocks.
Michalak not only plays music, he also composes it - in a style that mixes Arabic, Moroccan and French influences.
Of course, his main focus in South Africa, though, is helping the Sharks win the Super 14 title that so narrowly eluded them last year.
"That is what I came for … to win. I know I won't be here a long time. It is important for them to do better than last year, which is to win the final."
Michalak's future is still uncertain. He may stay with the Sharks to play the domestic Currie Cup competition, but he's likely to return to France to fulfil his yearning to play for Les Bleus in next year's Six Nations. And he's not short of offers. A number of clubs in France and England have confirmed their interest.
Tonight's game against the Waratahs is unlikely to be the only time he plays in Australia this year. He hopes to be named in the French team to play the Wallabies in two Tests - on June 28 at ANZ Stadium in Sydney and July 5 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
Michalak would bring experience to a squad that will be without several top players due to a scheduling clash with the semi-finals and final of the French Top 14 tournament.
He will also be match-fit from his experience in the Super 14, which he rates highly. "For me, they are all like international games," he says. "It [Super 14] is different. In France, we prepare less but play 11 months. Here, we prepare two-and-a-half months and play 13 games - possibly 15. There is good preparation in Super 14, so you get to play the games in good condition."
Michalak is aware that attention tonight will be focused on his contest with 19-year-old Waratahs five-eighth Kurtley Beale.
From what he has seen, Michalak believes Beale's graduation to the Wallabies is imminent, even though he says the most likely first-choice No.10, Matt Giteau, offers different qualities.
Michalak says age should never be used as an excuse to not select Beale or any other Aussie young gun. "In a team, you have to have different qualities. You have to have young players, more older players, and a mixture of them can be perfect.
"When I see [Beale], I don't see a player who is less than 25. I don't see someone who has not been playing at this level long. He doesn't have the same traits as Giteau. But … pfft … you need players with different qualities."
Players such as Michalak.
