In the small room near a school, photos are displayed proudly on the walls. “Here you have our first president who has done a lot for the club,” says Joshua Chick, vice-president of Rugby Club L’Aurence. Opposite, a trophy is highlighted on a cupboard. Just to motivate the 70 or so licensees (outside the rugby school) of the women’s and men’s teams.
A recruitment evening organized
A few months ago, the French Rugby Federation gargled good results in terms of licensees. In a press release, she explained that last year, in 2021, “the number of licensees is greater than in 2019 before the start of the pandemic: +6.76% of practitioners, all categories combined and +16.90% of young new practitioners in the Rugby School.” In Haute-Vienne, the number of licensees stands at approximately 2,220. A significant increase, we are informed at the departmental committee of the department.
In the small Limougeaud club, created since 1974, we are also active in recruiting people. Léonie Caillaud and Camille Aspect, two players from the club, went door to door near her home, in their student environment. “We did a recruitment operation evening. There are a lot of girls who play today every weekend and who came out of this evening” explains Leonie. “And then, there are also other girls who come to see us play on Sundays” Camilla adds. She herself explains that she joined the club “by chance”. A happiness that she shares in a very tight-knit team, as we saw recently during an amateur match.
Attract people to the club with family rugby
“We practice a friendly family rugby” underlines Joshua Chick, the vice-president of the Rugby Club L’Aurence. “We have a male senior pole, a ten-a-side women’s pole and a rugby school.” In the Limoges region, Panazol also offers this type of infrastructure. In Limoges, apart from USAL, the Rugby Club L’Aurence is the only one able to offer it. Based in the Val de l’Aurence district, he is therefore always looking to recruit. Even if sometimes it’s complicated, we admit. “It’s easier to play football sometimes: you take a ball and hit a wall. In rugby, it’s more complicated” emphasizes Joshua Chick. The vice-president’s pride? In the long term, it would be to welcome young people from the neighborhood into his club.
In the meantime, like the big professional clubs, we can say that the “group lives well”. The women, who have two games left, are in a position to go to the final phase, which would also be another source of pride for the vice-president. The men’s team is more complicated. No final phase for the thirty players. Whatever. We are talking about family rugby here. “Besides, all the players, my children call them uncle or tata” laughs Pierre Nouailhas, 32-year-old front line.
The young dad still admits that the good results of the France team can help them recruit. At work (these players are amateurs, need we remind you), on Monday after a victory, “People come to talk to me saying ‘hey, we saw the France team, it’s going well’, when these people are not interested in rugby.” One year from the World Cup on French territory, Pierre therefore hopes that this will be capitalized on in his club.
“For us, it’s only positive” explains Joshua Chick speaking of the results of the French team. It now remains to progress, to find sponsors who would be ready to support the club, which, like amateur clubs, has suffered from the Covid crisis.