The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron meets Monday, November 15 the French women’s and men’s rugby teams. The Head of State is having lunch at the Marcoussis training center (Essonne), in particular with Antoine Dupont and his teammates, five days before the French match against the All Blacks as part of the tour.
While the Rugby World Cup is due to be held in France in 2023, this sport is attracting more and more people but it still has a territory to conquer: the suburbs. The Ile-de-France league has therefore just launched a project of one million euros and hired 24 territorial sports leaders to invest these working-class neighborhoods. The goal is to democratize the discipline.
In Grigny, for example, Dora did not even know what rugby was until recently. “I was more focused on football”, says the 15-year-old. “I had an idea of rugby as being a bad sport, which hurts”, she says. “Me too, that scared me”, remembers his comrade Cédrine. “If it hadn’t been for some action at my college, I would never have found out about the club and I would never have signed up.”
Indeed, in Grigny, the young people do not go of themselves towards the oval ball. “It’s complicated because it’s not the favorite sport in the neighborhoods and cities”, recognizes Sofiane Faresse. Child of Grigny himself, he is one of the 24 territorial sports leaders recruited by the Ile-de-France league. He multiplies initiations at the foot of cities. “You have to go get them but we come with two or three balloons and a snack at the end”, he explains.
But before even talking about sport, “we must show that it is a sibling of girls and boys”, says Sofiane Faresse. Rugby is indeed according to Sofiane a first choice educational vector, for “to instill in them every day a form of respect and cohesion”. The task was not easy: “At the start it was not won. We had young people coming out of the field, insults were flowing right and left.”
If he “there is still work”, the investment paid off for educators. “With a look or an ‘eh!’ They understand right away”, assures Sofiane Faresse. “It creates a lot of links. Thanks to rugby, we are much more united”, confirms Momo. “It’s a second family”, adds Kelly.
“When we play together, we create friendships, we have parties together and we learn to be sociable.”
Kelly, rugby player at the Grigny clubto franceinfo
For some, rugby is even becoming a way to gain self-confidence, even to assert oneself, especially for girls.“We heard beautiful sentences”, quips Dora, but “we play rugby and we are proud of it”, she says.
Rugby is gradually succeeding in making a place for itself in Grigny, with today around forty licensees. The potential is enormous in Île-de-France, with 230 priority districts of the city’s policy in 160 Ile-de-France municipalities. The league hopes to quickly hire 20 other territorial animators, and attract some 4,000 additional licensees by 2023 or 2024.