AFP/Paris

French hooker Brice Mach is renowned as a practical joker by his Castres teammates but there was not much to laugh about when he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer two years ago.
On Friday, though, he has every chance of experiencing the high of representing his country for the first time in a Test against two-time defending Six Nations champions Wales in Cardiff after he deservedly earned a call-up to the squad when Benjamin Kayser withdrew because of injury.
The 27-year-old—formerly with Beziers, Montauban and Agen—caught the eye last year with his performances as Castres stunned bigger spending Top 14 rivals Clermont in the semi-finals and then European champions Toulon in the French Championship final.
However, Mach—who admits to being a rugby union addict since the age of four—beat the odds of even being able to take to the pitch again after an x-ray revealed the problem in 2012.
“One day when I was undergoing a neck scan, a radiographer said to me: ‘Do you have a problem with your thyroid? As you have a lump, it is imperative you have it checked out’.
“As I am an optimist by nature, I let it ride for one or two months. After that I underwent an operation to have my thyroid punctured and all was revealed.”
Mach, who will vie with the vastly-experienced Dimitri Szarzewski for the starting position as the French bid to make it three wins from three games and keep alive their hopes of their first Grand Slam since 2010, said he didn’t slide into depression at the news, and instead maintained his usual cheerful persona.
“I didn’t get despressed. I said to myself: ‘It is an illness and it can be cured’.
“The most affected by the news was my family and those closest to me.
“The illness explained, though, why I had suddenly become so injury-prone and how my level of play had dipped.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that was a relief for me to find out that way...but I knew that it was ‘another me’.
“I was sleeping 10 hours at a time but when I woke up it felt like I had only had two hours sleep.
“One is tired, you don’t understand why, and you worry yourself silly as to what is wrong with you.”
Mach, though, defied perceived medical science over how quickly one could recover.
“You say to yourself that it can’t finish like this.
“I only learnt afterwards that normally one is cured in eight months.
“Me, though, I was back doing exercise one month afterwards and a month later I was playing.
“I felt myself to be a different person. To get back to playing a certain level of rugby was a huge source of happiness for me.
“The sickness had deprived me of that and eaten away at me inside.
“The fact of this sickness being cured gave me back my life simply put.
“I was myself once again, it was almost a resurrection.”
Mach, who began his career at No8 but was determined to become a hooker like his idol New Zealand legend Sean Fitzpatrick, said that waking up each day was a joy.
“After everything I have gone through, each day is sheer happiness.
“Life is made up of highs and lows, I have experienced real lows and great highs.”
The renaissance of Mach, who outside of rugby enjoys enriching his cultural knowledge by visiting museums with his girlfriend, was confirmed by Laurent Travers, who along with Laurent Labit coached him and Castres to the title last season before moving onto Racing-Metro.
“He is like a fourth backrow forward and extremely dynamic, also very good defensively,” said Travers, who also coached Mach at Montauban.
“He has come back even stronger after his illness.”
For the engaging Mach, though, winning his first cap is not the end of the story.
“This is not mission accomplished. It is another challenge, that I must pass with brio.”