Léo Banos

At 23, Léo Banos is a French flanker on the books of Stade Toulousain, the country's most decorated club and a regular fixture at the top of European rugby. Born on 16 August 2002, Banos has been developed through the Toulouse academy, the same pathway that has produced a long line of internationals across multiple positions in the back row. He profiles as a back-row forward in the modern Toulouse mould — mobile, comfortable in contact and competitive at the breakdown — and his progression has been carefully managed inside one of the deepest squads in club rugby. Within the Stade Toulousain set-up, opportunities for younger back rowers are typically earned in the rotation games of the Top 14 calendar and in European pool fixtures, with senior selection a longer arc behind a group that includes a cluster of French internationals. Banos is part of that longer-term planning at Toulouse, a homegrown forward whose role at this stage of his career is to add ballast and freshness to the back-row roster.