“It’s great!”… How the French fell head over heels for wheelchair rugby

From our special correspondent in the magical world of wheelchair rugby,

Whoever dares to tell us straight in the eye that they don’t like wheelchair rugby, after watching a match at the Arena Champ-de-Mars, should speak now or forever hold their peace. Either way, we won’t believe them. Billed as the thrill sport of these Paralympic Games, “RF” as it’s nicknamed on the West Coast (absolutely not) is indeed true to its reputation as a crazy sport.

Barely having entered the room, late – no thanks to Brigitte Macron for having monopolized Alexandre Léauté after his gold medal in track cycling – for the start of the third quarter between the French team and Australia, world champion in 2022, it took us no more than two minutes to drop our snack and remain open-mouthed, as if hypnotized by these armchair madmen who send each other monstrous bags like in the good old days of bumper cars.

The shocks and their power, that’s what strikes you right away. In this, the name rugby is clearly not usurped. Equipped with reinforced (and rather stylish) chairs, the athletes seem to have a monstrous time knocking out everything that comes their way, as if they were in their living room playing GTA. “It’s head-on, it’s super physical, it’s real rugby in fact,” notes David, a fan of oval ball but also of wheelchair rugby for a while now. How did he get into it? “I follow it a bit when it’s broadcast on TV,” he explains.

A conquered audience who want more

An angel passes by and questions race through our heads. But we are so disconcerted by this insane sentence that we didn’t even think to ask him WHERE IS THIS BROADCAST ON TV??? No matter, that’s not the subject. On the other hand, we can hope (or even demand) that wheelchair rugby gains media exposure after the end of the Paralympic Games. Because there will be people to watch it. Among them, Cécile takes her napkin ring straight away.

“I was impressed by their physique, I didn’t think it would be so intense. I rarely go to see sports at the stadium or indoors and there I was really into it the whole match,” confided Serge the mythomaniac’s partner. “It was the same for me with beach volleyball, with the same atmosphere, the music, the speakers who warm up the room. It even made me want to try it. And another great thing is the mixed aspect. I never go to rugby matches with my husband but when I saw that, I said let’s go! It’s amazing, great, there are no other words.” Say no more!

The enthusiasm is the same for Paul, who came with his wife and children from Côtes-d’Armor to experience the magic of the Paras. His first wheelchair rugby match at the stadium was a revelation. “We followed the Olympics on TV quite a bit but we wanted to enjoy the Paralympics on site and we were hesitating between that and wheelchair basketball. In the end we watched some video clips of matches and we found it pretty good,” he says. “And in fact it’s great. The atmosphere is crazy. It makes you want to follow. Tomorrow, for sure, we’ll be in front of the TV! There’s a real craze, when they manage to break through the opponent’s wall, you can feel a real excitement in the room, it’s incredible.”

A true aesthetic of movement

It is true that the atmosphere of Bombonera of the Arena Champ-de-Mars adds a little something extra to this crazy sport. But the main interest remains all the same the field. The ease with which the players move, all by sliding, feinting and dribbling, has something deeply aesthetic. Special mention Friday evening to Batt Ryley, whom Bob Vanaker, the coach of the French team, did not hesitate to describe recently as “Michael Jordan of wheelchair rugby”, and who made life difficult for the French defense, managing on several sequences to slip between all the opponents to go and put the ball in the in-goal area.

We will surely fall asleep dreaming of this rather crazy action, always signed by the “GM” of the “RF”: feint to the left, feint to the right followed by a reverse from behind the faggots to go and score the goal. The tricolors were not left out either in the showman side, although a bit more brute force. Each to their own style, after all. The public was particularly enthusiastic to see Jonathan Hivernat play the bulldozer and manage to pass into the in-goal area despite three men in wheelchairs blocking him. Tut tut, move over, Johnny is in the place.

On the other hand, we readily admit that some subtleties have sometimes escaped us. But why the hell did Hivernat, him again, stall when he had the Boulevard Haussmann in front of him to put the return point at -1? We would have liked to ask him the question in the mixed zone but the players had left as quickly as the PSG players after a match at the Parc. Be careful not to get too big, gentlemen. We’re joking, of course.

The spotlight is on attacks

Finally, it’s complicated not to like the name of a temporary exclusion. In wheelchair rugby, you’re not excluded, you go to prison. It’s cute and it reminds us of memories of dodgeball in the playground. Beyond the spectacular and enjoyable side, wheelchair rugby is nonetheless a hyper-tactical sport, where the quality of the screens (like in basketball) plays a central role in the smooth running of attacks. Not to mention the time management, with each team having 40 seconds to try to score from the moment they recover the ball.

So, depending on the score, the team in the lead will tend to play for time before going to score its goal, even if it is wide open. In this little game, the Australian number 10, a certain Bond, Chris Bond, drove the French public crazy by beating around the bush many times before concluding. If we had to find a downside, just one, it would be the difficulty for the defenses to stop the opponent’s attacks.

The matches are often summed up like this: attack, goal, attack, goal, etc. We asked David, the big consumer of wheelchair rugby on TV, what he thought about it. He confirms: “The slightest mistake in attack is paid for dearly, it’s immediately +1 or +2 for the other team, and after that it’s very hard to catch up. That’s why it’s very tactical and why the teams play a lot with the clock.” And with our emotions, which the very honorable defeat of the Blues (53-55) will not have tarnished. Besides, it’s decided, at the start of the school year, we’re taking out a license.