“At home, Mitterrand was God!” : Laporte has not forgotten Bordeaux’s last title in 1991

Before obtaining his letters of nobility as coach of the XV of France then manager of Toulon, and well before taking the head of French rugby as president of the FFR, Bernard Laporte was a high-level rugby player.

A tall, lanky scrum-half, he never enjoyed the honours of selection but still lifted the Brennus Shield, he who was the captain of the Bordeaux-Bègles Gironde Athletic Club in 1991 during the final against Stade Toulouse (19-10).

Bordeaux-Bègles in the final: the memories of Bernard Laporte

In this week of the Top 14 final between Toulouse and UBB, the current director of rugby at Montpellier came out to - Rugby his box of memories around what others would call the “momentum” of his playing career.

- : You had declared before this 1991 final your assurance of not losing it. What made you so confident?

Bernard Laporte : We were on a very good dynamic. With age, however, you realize that it’s completely stupid to say that! You give strength to the opponent. You have to play it afterwards, the match. I don’t know if it was the small against the big, but it was Toulouse opposite. And Toulouse is always big, with incredible players like Jérôme Cazalbou, Patrick Soula, Philippe Rougé-Thomas… But it’s true that we were confident.

A final mastered by the CABBG

The Parc des Princes, the presentation of the players to the President of the Republic, the crowd… How did you emotionally manage the context of this match as captain?

B.L : At Stade Toulouse, they used to play finals. We don’t! And it’s true that shaking the president’s hand and introducing him to the players, what’s more François Mitterrand, with a committed and militant socialist father… At home, Mitterrand was God! Today it has become more commonplace but I must say it was funny. And then the Park was the most beautiful stadium for me. Yes, it was a great moment!

Your team was up 16-0 in this game. Did you feel like you had played a dream final?

B.L : Effectively. There are matches like that where everything comes together well and that’s what happened for us that day. Toulouse still came back into the game and when we play Stade Toulouse, we know that it is always dangerous. But we had control for a good part of the match and we won.

Rugby from another era

Your forwards were able to shine with the impressive number of scrums that there were in this final…

B.L : I remember seeing the images again by chance from the time I was coach of the France team, because my son wanted to watch this final with friends. And then I said to myself “It’s not possible!”. I’m not going to say it was bad, but it was unlike anything done today. It was another era. We trained twice a week: on Monday it was often football for recovery, we really worked on Wednesday and on Friday it was training which lasted 3/4 of an hour. It’s incomparable with rugby today.

You started the game out of the scrum, with a long pass, and also in touch with a very particular throwing technique from low to high…

B.L : I don’t like talking about myself too much. What I liked above all was commanding this team, especially in the mauls which were our strength. We had a simple game with dominant forwards, a good opener called Christophe Reigt and a very penetrating center, William Téchoueyre. For my part, I threw into touch because we wanted our hooker, Vincent Moscato, to be in the lineup to be active as quickly as possible in the carried balls. It was really a different time, since it was forbidden to lift jumpers. We called it a lift, you were penalized.

The promise kept by Armand Vaquerin

Do you consider this moment to be the pinnacle of your playing career?

B.L : Yes, and we were really a group of friends, very close. I also remember that after the match, we had Armand Vaquerin in the locker room. We had eliminated Béziers in the previous match and when I saw him, I asked him to come and he kept his word. For Vincent Moscato and me, Vaquerin was a legend! We were so happy to have this guy with us who we were so fond of!

Has this coronation sealed eternal bonds between the players on your team?

B.L : As for Vincent Moscato and I, we’ve known each other since we were 10 years old, so we didn’t need that. On the other hand, yes, with Serge Simon, Christophe Reigt, William Techoueyre… this epic has created a strong lasting friendship between us, that’s obvious.

Don’t you regret that people remember your brutal round of 16 in Toulon more readily than this final?

B.L : But there again, it’s the same, it was really another era. Total nonsense! When you watch it, you feel ashamed and you say to yourself that it’s not possible to have offered this spectacle. That’s also why I say that today’s rugby is something else. That doesn’t prevent the best players of the time from being the best players today, because they had the talent. But between what was done 30 years ago, where the effective playing time had to be barely 20 minutes, and what is done today, it’s simply incomparable.

What is your prediction for the 2024 final between Toulouse and Bordeaux?

B.L : It’s very difficult to decide for a final, because it’s always 50-50. It’s the final fight, all the guys are at full strength, there’s no one half-hearted. What I remember is the journey of the two presidents. When Didier Lacroix took over Stade Toulouse, the club was going through a difficult period. He remade the Stade Toulouse which is winning by also surrounding itself with people like Ugo Mola. This is to his credit. As for Laurent Marti, he has been president of the UBB for a very long time. He took over this club in difficulty, built and is now enjoying its first final. We must pay tribute to them.

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