After long weeks of preparation, and the day after an astonishing defeat against Italy, all the players of the French rugby team dreaded having to leave the group at the last moment, just before the departure for the New Zealand and this World Cup scheduled for 2021 but postponed due to the pandemic. And on the plane that will take Les Bleues to the other side of the world, there will be four Iséroises.
Three of them are currently playing for the FCG Amazons: scrum-half Alexandra Chambon, and third lines Emeline Gros and Manae Feleu. We must also add the center Maëlle Filopon, now in Toulouse but originally from Miribel-Lanchâtre and also passed by the Grenoble club. A contingent that is the pride of the head of the women’s section Emmanuel Pellorce ” we already had recognition but these selections validate all that. Above all, these girls now stay in Grenoble and some even come back (like Emeline Gros, back this summer). “Emmanuel Pellorce insists on efforts made by the players to reach the international level: ” I remember Alexandra doing kicking sessions in the middle of winter, it was cold, it was raining, almost in the dark. They train between 10 and 14 hours a week in addition to their studies, and today it is all this work that pays off. “
” A great rugby and human experience ” Léo Brissaud, coach of the Amazons
Selections that prove that Grenoble is growing, also the guarantee that this experience will benefit the whole group, as explained by the coach of the first team, Léo Brissaud: ” on this type of competition, the pressure is important, it’s a month and a half in autarky on the other side of the world, it’s a great rugby and human experience. They will leave for a month and a half but come back I think with one or two more years of experience! “
Gathered with all the French selection from Friday in Marcoussis, the Iséroises will fly to New Zealand next week, the World Cup starting on October 8th.