Ludovic Cayre, who will lead the first final of his career at the Vélodrome, owes his first steps in refereeing to a mishap which could have turned into a tragedy. Here is his story…
The life of Ludovic Cayre, who will direct a Top 14 final this evening and for the first time in his life, changed around twenty years ago. At the time, “Ludo » is a kid like any other from Lot-et-Garonne. During the week, he is a third grade student at Lucien-Sigala college in Duras, a small village on the banks of Dropt, a tributary of the Garonne. On weekends, he plays rugby on the municipal field, like most of his classmates. He says in the preamble: “At 15, I suffered a serious neck injury following a tackle: I had placed my head on the wrong side at the time of impact…» Immediately evacuated on a stretcher, Ludovic Cayre was then taken care of by the emergency services. He pursues : “Was I scared at the time? No more than that, I think… I was 15, I was carefree and at first, I didn’t realize the seriousness of the injury. On the other hand, my parents had a series of sleepless nights.»
In truth, Ludovic Cayre was at the time on the verge of becoming a rugby handicapped like there are unfortunately dozens of others: “After the shock, I had surgery at the Pellegrin hospital in Bordeaux. The surgical procedure was a C2 (spinal nerve number 2, Editor’s note), C3 and C4 arthrodesis. Behind that, the convalescence lasted almost a year. The cervicals had moved several millimeters compared to the norm tolerated by a human body. So I almost got out of the wheelchair. What I remember are the surgeons around me who touched my arms and hands every five minutes to find out if I had lost sensitivity… »
At the same time, Ludovic Cayre has other challenges to overcome. To carry them through, he will then be carried by the unthinkable wind of solidarity raised in his village by his injury. He explains : “It was the year of the certificate and I was lucky to be able to count on a magnificent teaching staff. The teachers from the Duras college, outside of their working hours, came to my house to teach me while I was bedridden. […] Honestly, the days were pretty busy. I don’t think I suffered a single second from boredom or weariness during this entire period. »
After convalescence, the adolescent Ludovic Cayre was then faced with a choice, which he detailed in these terms: “I come from a very rugby-loving family: my sister played it and my parents are crazy about this sport… Once the convalescence was over, I wondered how to stay in this environment. Train? I was too young. Play ? I was strictly forbidden to do so. I then turned to arbitration, in the Marmandais sector.» But starting from the base, this means: “My first match was a cadet meeting at Passage d’Agen. Then, I played in the territorial series, in the federal division… Little by little, I got into the game and climbed the ranks. »
“I haven’t had easy times…”
If seen from here, the trajectory of this referee who is considered today, with Pierre Brousset and Mathieu Raynal, as one of the three best “referees” in the territory, may seem rather linear, it was however not so.At the beginning, he remembers now, I didn’t just have easy times. My first year of Federale 3, for example, was very complicated: I was very young and involved in some rather hot derbies. For example, I remember a match between Larressore and AS Bayonne that was a bit heated; some rough field trips, too. But all that built my character, I think. »
Semi-professional since 2019 and familiar with our biggest Top 14 evenings, Ludovic Cayre (35 years old) today devotes most of his life to an activity which is, in the eyes of the general public, nevertheless narrowed in the temporality of ‘a weekend. “I am quality manager in a company in the region but almost 100% dedicated to arbitration. I have a great boss who understands my problems. On a daily basis, I work with a physical trainer from the FFR: on average, we have between two and three cardio sessions per week. We also take Bronco tests (endurance and speed exercise, Editor’s note) every two months. […] This requirement in preparation is rather logical: we need to have clear ideas in money time. » He, whom the bosses of DNA (the national arbitration department) say is coming out of an almost perfect 2023-2024 season, nevertheless remains lucid about the vagaries of his activity. “When I perform poorly, I am the first to realize it. I also remember an interview where Mathieu Raynal explained that in a match, we generally have 90% good decisions but that people always remember the 10% errors. These then come back to us in the face. However, we are the first to be unhappy when we make a mistake.»
On this subject, he elaborated as follows: “Via social networks, I unfortunately receive insults after each Top 14 meeting. However, I try to lock in as much as possible. When I see that the beginning of the message is not necessarily kind, I delete it, I block it without even getting to the end of the sentence. Some are very brave behind a phone screen or computer keyboard. I don’t make a big deal of it.»
“I spent hours watching scrimmage videos…”
A few days before the kick-off of this final between Toulouse and Bordeaux Bègles, Ludovic Cayre confided that he was not overly anxious, refusing to “make the match before it is played“. But as serene as he is, there is definitely an area of play in which he is uncomfortable, isn’t there? And since all the pillars of the world say, for example, that referees, having never pushed a scrum in their lives, are not good at their art, they must surely be right, right? “The scrum, he now admits, is one of the most difficult phases of the game to judge. I have never played on the front line but I am trying to understand the workings of it. At one time in my life, I spent hours watching scrum videos and dissecting the attitudes of the front lines: their support, their connections or their thrust axes…»
Considered as a referee favoring the game, the surprise guest of the final (Mathieu Raynal, who will end his career at the end of the season, was still expected last week to direct the last poster of the domestic season) should not curb the ambitions of the two most spectacular teams in the championship, in Marseille. He concludes : “We direct two hundred rucks, fifteen scrums and around thirty touches per match. We must be a facilitator. If we refereed as recommended in the rules book, we would whistle every ten seconds and after a quarter of an hour, everyone would turn off their TV.“And without TV, no professional sport, it seems…
