In his blue and black club tracksuit, Bastien Puyraud is a head taller than everyone else on the crowded Sarlat market this Saturday morning. The player has in hand a pile of bracelets that he offers to passers-by for the club evening, organized at the Christian Goumondie stadium, for the return of the Club Athlétique Sarladais (CAS): “The club has often been there for us, we must reciprocate”. Five euros entry, according to his teammate Sylvain Olluyn, “the goal is to bring in as much money as possible, we’re not going to hide it, and that it’s good for the club after what happened”.
No more “Sarlat Rugby”, the CAS is back
The two players were part of the club’s dream team last season, set up by Dominique Einhorn, the businessman who arrived from the United States who had taken over the presidency of the club and aimed to raise it to Pro D2. . He is now indicted, suspected of aggravated fraud, tax evasion or abuse of social property. Entangled in financial difficulties, the Sarlat rugby club has chosen to refuse the move to Federal One and to voluntarily go down to Federal 3 this season to start again on a sound basis. He still has to pay off 120,000 euros in debt that the club is still dragging around like a ball and chain.
Obviously there were a lot of departures, so a lot of arrivals, there is a mayonnaise to be found
finished on Sarlat Rugby. The club regained its name before the sequins, the CAS became the CAS again. He kept the salamander logo from the Einhorn era, but the name “CA Sarlat” has been added to it. Today on the 24 contracted players in the squad last year, there are only three left. Two full-time, a third part-time. Bastien Puyraud is one of the few who have chosen to stay, agreeing to lower his salary: “It’s easy to leave when things are bad. So yes, I’ve had offers elsewhere, but I feel good in this group and that’s very important. Obviously there have been a lot of departures, so a lot of arrivals, there is a mayonnaise to be found”.
Young people back at the club
On the terrace of Le Gambetta bar, Didier knows that the game will be less flamboyant this year. The club has recruited young people, 56 licensees in all, often trained at the club. They had left to find playing time elsewhere during the spangles of Sarlat Rugby, they came back to the club to help him : “Last year, the players on the pitch we didn’t know them. Whereas all the young people who are here, we know them”. The club has chosen a quartet of internal coaches for its staff, with Ludovic Pérusin, and Jonathan Laporte. Last season’s captain will still be on the pitch, he’s given up the armband, because he’s also now coaching the forwards, a new experience for him.
The Einhorn affair will still follow the club for a long time. Sylvain Olluyn knows it, this season against Saint-Astier, Le Lardin or Vergt, “We are going to play derbies every weekend. There will be this revengeful side, we will hear people say: ‘The Americans, the Pro D2’… we have been hearing that for two years, but we players are very far from all that. The workforce, for the most part, are real Sarladais who had raised the club three years ago. When there are hard knocks, we are there”.