in the first women’s division, demands on the field and resourcefulness off it

In French women’s rugby, only international XV or VII players benefit from semi-professional status and a salary.

Light rain, a synthetic pitch… The players from Bobigny and Grenoble went blow for blow in the women’s rugby first division championship match, Elite 1, on Sunday October 6. But from the siren, the issues become common again since, for them, almost all amateurs, the next day “you have to be at work”. The match, initially scheduled for 3 p.m., was brought forward by two hours; a request from the Grenoble club in order to return earlier from the long bus journey that will follow

Defeated 24-10, the Grenobloises, last season’s quarter-finalists, were fighting without their best players, six French internationals currently in Canada to compete in the Women’s XV competition with the French team. International players, at XV or VII, are the only ones to benefit from a semi-professional status, with a salary covered by the federation, which in exchange has priority for matches and gatherings.

For others, the remuneration linked to rugby is above all “expenses” and remains minimal, underlines Léo Brissaud, the Grenoble coach.“Today, one of the leading causes of shutdown” in leading women’s rugby is caused by the difference between “the level of expectations expected and the conditions in which we put the players”he believes.

On the bench opposite, Clémence Gueucier, the sports director of Bobigny, said nothing else. If, “it’s not the same market” compared to the men’s Top 14, “Overall, we ask players to have an almost identical rate of investment: watching the matches, doing analysis, three times a week at least weight training, training (…) recovery, develop individually…”

“It happens to us that there are players who tell us ‘in fact I can’t play because my employer won’t release me'”, she says. The budget of the Grenoble women’s team is around 350,000 euros for a season according to Léo Brissaud, and that of Bobigny around of 400,000 euros, according to Marc-Henri Kugler, coordinator of the women’s sector, a figure which has doubled in five years. “Women’s rugby is becoming professionalized through structures” with physiotherapists, accommodation assistance, or, in the case of clubs with professional men’s teams, by the equipment available but “not by the players”for lack of a sufficient economic model, he observes.

No broadcaster came forward for the championship and entry for the 150-200 people present in Tremblay-en-France to encourage the Louves, the vast majority of whom are women, is free. The French rugby federation, which organizes the competition, launched a new formula this season in order to gain in “game quality” and in “visibility”describes Brigitte Jugla, vice-president of the FFR in charge of women’s rugby. Discussions are also underway to set up a European club competition which still does not exist.

From sixteen teams, divided into four groups, before the pandemic, the French championship increased to ten teams who will compete in the regular phase in a single group. Six of them are linked to professional clubs, unlike the other four.

Among the latter is Bobigny, who managed to escape at the last minute last season when the other Ile-de-France club, Stade français, went down. Rennes, Lille and Blagnac are the three teams also in this situation. “There is still some fundamental work to be done. But things are moving forward” believes Clémence Gueucier, herself a former rugby sevens international.