22nd March 2011: Miscellaneous

Captain Xavi Fantastic

We were playing on Sunday without our usual scrum-half and captain. This multi-talented boy is the rising star of the club. Along with being the Crabos captain he has managed to fit in several games for the Espoirs (at centre, no less) and also studies Economics at the Sorbonne. He hardly ever misses a training session and is frighteningly consistent. He is also one of the few people that I can converse with almost fluently. Whether it’s his accent or whether he simply talks like a child (I doubt this), we get on very well. Sadly, last week during our Wednesday night session he twisted his ankle quite badly. So he missed out on Sunday. What’s worse is that he had just been selected for a France under 19 squad preparing for a match against England. He was meant to be in camp today but simply went along to the French National Rugby Centre at Marcoussis and signed in as injured, a real shame.

He told me that out of a squad of 40, 30 are part of the ‘Pole Equipe de France’. This is a group of the 30 best players in France who live and train full time at Marcoussis with the French Federation. Seemingly they return at weekends to play for their clubs, though they don’t play week in week out. They are not paid by the Federation either which I found surprising given how much they put in.

At a time when Scottish rugby fans are looking at how age-grade rugby is run in Scotland, it’s interesting to see how the French do it.

‘One of the President’s (least important) Men’

I shook hands with the President of the club the other day. I was going to write that I met him but I didn’t really, I still await my invitation to dinner. I now operate on a ‘if in doubt, shake a hand’ rule, so I grabbed his and said bonjour. The hype is building for Saturday’s inaugural match contesting the Trophée du Coubertin against Toulouse at the Stade de France. The trophy is named after the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin who was also the man to referee the first rugby match in France in 1892 between Racing and Stade Francais. You might think that this new innovation of a match should be played between these two clubs and the Stade owner has claimed that Racing tried this and Stade declined. This Pierre de Coubertin is an interesting chap. Aristocrat, intellectual, follower of Arnold (of Rugby fame) and his thinking on education, sport and ‘muscular Christianity’ and then of course the whole Olympic thing. He was also a staunch amateur and being French he probably appreciated the distinction between the words amateur and professional, with amateur having more of a direct link with its origin in the latin - ‘aimer’, to love. Professionals don’t love it so much, of that I am sure.

The Baron said things like this:

“The important thing in life is not victory but combat; it is not to have vanquished but to have fought well.”

“For me sport was a religion... with religious sentiment.”

But anyway, the President has promised the following, with a not-so sly dig at the Stade Francais show that accompanies their visits to the Stade de France, “J'insiste, pour ce match, pas de poitrines, pas de fesses, pas de zizis. Ce sera rugby, rugby, rugby”. Even if you don’t speak French, you get the point.

The Final Countdown

It dawned on me that I might only have 4 games left here. Of course it could be 7 if we get to the final but the number 4 sharpens the focus and the motivation. I didn’t train today except a short speed session. I started to feel tightness in my hamstring so I stopped. No risks, that was the line from everyone, especially with such a big match on Sunday. I’ve got to this stage in the season, I’ve trained until I’ve been blue in the face and I’m not going to put these big games on the line for something as trivial as a training session. By this stage, one must have confidence that the hours are in the bank, or in the legs, or even in the head...

Speaking of the head, me and Serge decided today that Brits look for a stand-off who can control a game more than the French. I can honestly say that I have never heard anyone use an expression anything close to ‘controlling the game’. For a 10, it’s all about getting the back line going, attacking the defence. When I arrived, we had a meeting and we discussed my strengths and weaknesses. I said I can control a game. They said, so what. But they were darker days. The differences in rugby between Scotland and France deserve one of the final gargantuan blog posts to themselves, but I thought best to record this chat when it happened.

All should be warned, I just remembered the pledge I made with my chain-smoking second row: we will both bleach our hair blond if we win the championship. Loved ones, those who are seen with me in public, you have been warned.