Édouard Ponsinet

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**Édouard Ponsinet**
Personal information
Full name	Édouard Ponsinet
Date of birth	1923
Place of birth	Carcassonne, France
Date of death	October 22, 2006
Place of death	Carcassonne, France
Height	1.82 cm
Weight	98 kg
Position	Second Row
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
1944 - 1952	Carcassonne
Representative teams
1948 - 1953	France	19 (12)
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only.

Édouard Ponsinet (born 1923 in Carcassonne, France died October 22, 2006 in Carcassonne, France) was a French rugby league player for AS Carcassonne and club Lézignan in the French rugby league championship competition. He also represented the France national rugby league team on eighteen occasions; his position of choice was in the second row.

Ponsinet originally had his background in athletics and at the age of eighteen was a member of both the French junior triathlon and sprinting teams; a year later he was crowned junior triathlon champion in France and ran a one hundred metre time of 11.3 seconds.

In early 1940 Édouard is courted by French rugby league club AS Carcassonne but before he is able to play a competition game for the club the newly appointed vichy government outlaws rugby league forcing all clubs to join rugby union or cease to exist. AS Carcassonne for a short time becomes ACE Carcassonne and plays rugby union off and on over the next three years until the Vichy government is taken out of power and the Carcassonne club reverts back to rugby league.

Over the next ten years with AS Carcassonne Ponsinet becomes a vital member of the clubs first team helping them to achieve five French rugby league championship titles and four Lord Derby Cups. It is also during these golden years with Carcassonne that Ponsinet cements his place in the French national side forming a lethal combination with fellow second row forward Élie Brousse. Over these years in French colours on the international scene, Édouard becomes well renowed in the rugby league world as one of the premier forwards in the game evident in his strong performances against the Australians during their 1951 tour to Oceania.

He eventually retired from the professional game at the resolution of the 1952 season before accepting a job as a coach at the Lézignan club the following year.

Ponsinet passed away on October 22, 2006 at the age of eighty-three