Can the Challenge Cup, of which the name of the Section Paloise is forever on the list of winners (2000) offer the sessions necessary for the handling of the oldest weapon, intended to ward off attacks? This European competition truncated by the pandemic, and very different issues for each other, can it really serve as a preparation for the Section, to better face the hordes from Auvergnats, Héraultais, Toulousains, Charentais-Maritimes and other Girondins, before receiving March 26, the god of war revels in it in advance, Catalans in fury, for THE match not to lose? If so, the Section can boast of having resuscitated the European Shield.
But good god, the road may be long. As Lacordaire wrote in the Conférence de Notre Dame in 1848, Right is the sword of the great and duty the shield of the small. If we admit here that the right is to appear in the Top 6, and the duty to stay in the Top 14, you instantly understand the subject. It seems indeed, after the exit from Lyon, that the Section is not big enough to handle the sword, but all the same at the height of his duty, shield on the arm, among the “little ones”.
Our consultants, Jean-Marc Souverbie and Franck Rollès, no longer know what to think of a situation, once again delicate. Unless they know too well, that the Section must still grow to go get Le Brennus one day, that only those who wield the sword can covet, to ultimately brandish a… shield.
– Credit: Paloise Béarn Pyrenees Section