The voice is tinged with emotions when he talks about it. President since 2016 of Sporting Club Saint-Pierre-du-Mont Rugby, President Thomas Costedoat found himself forced to withdraw for this 2022-2023 season. His team, supposed to evolve in Regional 3, did not have a sufficient number of players: “It was my fear“, he confides. “In June, following the stop of the main trainer and with many elders who also had to stop at the end of a cycle, we had fears about this resumption of the month of August. Fears that were gradually confirmed. We still had about thirty players, but who didn’t know if they were going to sign or not. We shot on average about fifteen in training, which was not possible for work…”
Quite quickly, Thomas Costedoat therefore had to do some DIY, before the house of cards ended up collapsing. “Little by little, we had this feeling that it was escaping, that we were going to lose this club. I felt it more than the players. Some players, in the end, experienced it very badly, it was a lot of emotions… Making this decision hurt everyone“.
A loss of practice
This lack of quantity of troops to ensure the season is no longer rare in the Landes. The players who left Sporting also went to reinforce Villeneuve-de-Marsan, a Federal club which was in tension to build up a workforce. The president of the Landes Rugby committee Max Godemet analyzes the phenomenon: “I’m afraid it will grow, becausewe are currently witnessing a disaffection with competitive practice in clubs that play in Regional 3, or otherwise in the regional series. It is clear that players no longer want to accept regular constraints, to commit to a club and go play every Sunday for different reasons. These are moments in the life of young players who get married, who build their house, who also want to practice leisure but not necessarily practice competition. It’s deplorable for rugby, but it has to be said“.
There are still great initiatives in some corners
A growing disaffection, but not irremediable for Max Godemet, who is working on it with the Federation and the Landes committee: “Currently, what we are trying to develop is recreational rugby. These people, we want to send them to practices of rugby 5, rugby to touch which means that we have a much smaller schedule and that we play on Saturday afternoon or Saturday morning and that we manages to maintain teams in these clubs, without having the constraints of a regular competition“. Max Godemet continues with the example of Herm’s club, “who had given up four years ago, who had gone dormant and who left this year with boys from the village who wanted to put together a team. There are still great initiatives in certain areas that have village lives, especially in the Basque Country or in the small Landes villages.“
Thomas Costedoat launches an appeal for his Saint-Pierre-du-Mont club
Max Godemet ends with the “club gatherings“, which remain a solution.”Currently, it is very, very used. For example, you have Rion-des-Landes which works with Morcenx, we have several examples like that. In the past, they were strongholds, with passionate people, very strong identities. But now, with the evolutions of society, they are obliged, in order to maintain a level of practice and to continue to be able to hire a team, to gather“.
They told me: it’s just a goodbye, it’s not a goodbye
A track that was not favored in Saint-Pierre-du-Mont, where we received a proposal from Roquefort, refused, because, according to Thomas Costedoat, it was doomed to failure. Thomas Costedoat who launches an appeal today: “It’s still a shame to be a Mons suburbanite and not have people interested in taking over this club… It has to be someone who has a fairly solid financial back, with a sporting project, because we can’t hide now. Now, even in Regional 3, you need a structured club, you have to set up a club with the means. There is room, if we compare to Saint-Paul-lès-Dax, to climb the ladder and seek the Federal, despite the proximity to Mont-de-Marsan. So, if someone is interested during the year, if someone has a project for next season, it will be with great pleasure that I will pass the torch. Going back to being a simple leader or volunteer would be more than enough for me. I know very well that the players who left right to left would be ready to come back. They told me: it’s just a goodbye, it’s not a goodbye“.