Confessions of a Rugby Mercenary by John Daniell

Author:John Daniell [John Daniell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407027166
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

9

Europe, the All Blacks, the World

Rugby has been played in Agen since 1908, and Sporting Union Agenais has won the Bouclier de Brennus eight times since 1930, most recently in 1988. Agen's 30,000 inhabitants are proud to call their town the prune capital of France. As with many other small towns in the first division, if there were not for the rugby team there would not be much going on. It is beautiful country though, with a well-deserved reputation for good eating, and the rugby team is very good. This is the club that has come closest to breaking the hegemony of the triumvirate of Toulouse, Biarritz and Stade Français in the French championship in recent years, losing 22–25 against Biarritz in extra time in the 2002 final.

The irony of this result was that it came just a few months after Agen had lost 59–10 to the Welsh club Ebbw Vale in the junior European Cup competition, the European Shield. Even the most ardent supporter of Ebbw Vale would agree that this was an unexpectedly large win for the Welsh side, but what happened that day so shocked European rugby officials that Agen were suspended from European competition the following year, the only time this had happened in the history of the competition.

Confronted by a busy calendar, Agen had decided they were going to concentrate on the French championship. Qualifying for the next round of the European Shield would simply add to the pile-up of games to be played, so they decided to throw the game. The problem was that simply losing wasn't going to be enough: Ebbw Vale had to score a barrowload of tries to go through, which meant the French side had to make a meal of it, and they did, waving the Welsh through as though they were trying to free up a traffic jam. They then unashamedly owned up to their ploy in the press, and seemed surprised that disciplinary action was taken. (The penalty was later reduced from a two-season disqualification to one-season following an appeal.) They had cause to regret their action: by finishing second in the championship they would have qualified for the Heineken Cup, but they missed out because of the suspension.

You may be appalled by this exercise in cynicism. Or perhaps you will just shrug your shoulders and figure they made the right calculation, since they got as far as the final six months later. The reality is that this kind of attitude towards the European Cup is not unusual in France. Agen lacked the necessary subtlety that might have allowed the authorities to swallow it: a few yellow cards for repeated technical infringements would have given them much the same result. But every year, when the European competition rolls round after two months of week-in, week-out championship games, one or two clubs will look at the list of wounded, look at the depth of their squad, assess their chances of winning the competition, and quietly pull the pin.

There is

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