Foot, basketball, handball, volleyball, the major team sports in France all have the right to their European competition for women. All but one: rugby. However, like many of them, he shone at the Tokyo Olympics by bringing back a silver medal, in rugby 7. Even more recently, during the fall tour, the Bleues du XV de France have crushed competition and marked the spirits by twice dominating the New Zealand women. So why our rugbywomen do not (yet) have a Champions Cup or a European Challenge to get their teeth into? Brigitte Jugla, former player and vice-president of the French Rugby Federation (FFR) in charge of women’s rugby, explains everything to us.
The calendar puzzle
Know it, the project is in the boxes of the European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), the governing body of the European cups, which approached the various national federations last spring. “They told us they were very keen to create a European Women’s Cup. They notably notified England, Scotland, Wales to sound out us and it turned out that we were all interested. “, begins Brigitte Jugla.
It is still very difficult to envisage anything, we must in particular determine on which niches it could take place, but we would like it to be created for 2022-2023.
Brigitte Jugla, vice-president of the FFRto franceinfo: sport
A date that would allow each federation, currently thinking about their future domestic calendar, to standardize their deadlines. “World Rugby is also in the process of thinking. The objective will be to match each other’s domestic competitions as well as possible, according to international competitions and to try to find a formula that suits everyone”, she adds. Encouragingly, the French calendar is already approaching that of its best English enemy.
A very tight group of competitors
But if there is competition, to hope that it can seduce, the future European Cup cannot be satisfied with a battle between French clubs and English clubs. In total, 14 clubs are playing in Elite 1 – if we include AS Bayonne, which withdrew for the entire season in November – against ten in the English Premier League. One of the brakes today remains the heterogeneous level of women’s rugby. “There are major nations, major teams in the domestic championships, and they are few. The titles, the finals always revolve around the same teams. At the international level, in the Six Nations, the division is between the ‘England and France, even if Scotland has evolved mainly because of its investment in women’s rugby and shows more things. “
In Elite 1 – name of the French championship – the games are hardly more open. If the Montpellier supremacy was shaken up last year (ASM Romagnat won the title in 2021 after three years of reign in Hérault), the teammates of Safi N’Diaye have won 6 of the last 10 editions. And these last seasons, “four, five clubs are still at the top of the table”, recalls the vice-president. In the lot, the unmissable Blagnac, Stade Toulousain and Montpellier.
However, this coronation is far from being anecdotal for Brigitte Jugla. “It is proof that the gaps are closing for the clubs which invest themselves. And we are working to keep it going, so that everyone can gain strength and find more fun. In our territory, we have clubs in Elite 1 who could play the European Cup, but it is very dispersed. We are still under construction “, she emphasizes.
The health of the players in question
Especially, where their male counterparts often have a plethora of staff to negotiate competitions, players from clubs potentially affected by a future European Cup are often already particularly in demand. “Some play in the French team at XV and or at 7, but also in the league. You have to be very careful about their health. In addition, there is a lack of licensees to fill the gaps. There is not a very large workforce. to play and respond to the multiplication of matches “, warns the vice-president.
There has been a 45% good in a few years, but you can’t compare to handball where they have 158,000 registered. We have 38,000 of them. First of all, we must lay a coherent base so that everything becomes sustainable.
Brigitte Jugla, vice president of the FFRto franceinfo: sport
The objective is certainly also to avoid an outcome similar to that of AS Bayonne. In November, the players went on strike and addressed an open letter explaining that they regretted not having a sufficiently large workforce to train properly and not to be listened to by management.
The Covid-19 obviously not helping, the workforce has been maintained or stagnated – question of point of view – in recent years. A situation which the FFR hopes to remedy quickly. To identify solutions, Brigitte Jugla notably asked for studies on the fluctuation of licensees. “They showed us that we have won as many players as we have lost over the last five years, around 900 per season. That means we have lost 4,500 girls, it’s huge. Why, how? We have to. think about all that too “, she exposes.
The importance of the double project
Because Brigitte Jugla and the Federation hope to advance the championship while allowing its elite to evolve at the highest level. One does not go without the other. “We have a lot of things to learn, women’s rugby is being built today without focusing on men. It is a real desire of the Federation, but also of the players because it does not correspond to them.“In the roadmap, the crucial place left to the double project. “For the French teams, we are still thinking about how to best organize time for the socio-professional project, the rugby career. How much time should be dedicated to studies, to the life of a woman? they go on 100% rugby? “, she asks.
The establishment of federal contracts, synonymous with remuneration, (55 players from France 7 and France XV are concerned this season), then that of a European Cup would go in this direction. It would allow French women’s rugby to give itself the means to rub shoulders with the heights of its sport a little more.