While the 2024 Rugby World Cup will continue without the French XV, the Blues of armchair rugby are playing in an international tournament from Wednesday October 18, in Paris.
We keep the tests and the tricolor jersey, but we change the rules somewhat. The International Wheelchair Rugby Cup, a tournament with eight other nations, starts Wednesday October 18 in Paris. The opportunity to follow a French team again, after the elimination of the Blues in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup against South Africa.
This wheelchair rugby competition also takes place in France. The matches are scheduled at the Halle Georges-Carprentier, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, while the final will be played on October 22 at the Accor Arena. The opportunity for the Blues, double reigning European champions, to introduce spectators to a sport that is still largely unknown, less than a year before the Paralympic Games.
A sport invented 50 years ago
Wheelchair rugby was born in the 1970s in Canada, imagined by former ice hockey and American football players who had been seriously injured on the field. But between the material, the equipment and the rules, it is a sport that “took a bit of everywhere”smiles Michel Terrefond, the sports director of the French team. “From rugby, we keep the values and the contacts. We play with a round ball, on a basketball court with handball and hockey rules“, summarizes the director.
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According to Michel Terrefond, wheelchair rugby is therefore suitable for athletes with disabilities, such as “people who are quadriplegic or affected by all four limbs. For example because of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease or agenesis [l’absence de formation d’un membre ou d’un organe].”
Physical contact clearly present
In wheelchair rugby, collisions between chairs are authorized and the athletes are strapped into them. But even Cédric Nankin, one of the players of the France team, nicknamed “the machine”, was a little apprehensive at first. A fear reinforced by the words of another player, Ryadh Sallem. “He said to me: ‘You’ll see, it’s great! These are disabled people who crash into each other and we’re applauded for that’ With this sentence, I said to myself: never in my life! , remembers Cédric Nankin. But his teammate was able to find the words to convince the refractory person to join the team. “And now, I only take kif!”, smiles Cédric Nankin.