XV of France – Immersed in the heart of the French team staff seminar

At the bend of a field, the rooster sometimes joins the lily of the valley. Under the grayness of the Var, the image took on meaning at the start of the week. The French Rugby Federation has decided to bring together the staff of the 14 French teams in the house of the Rugby Club Toulonnais. A total of around 70 people took the time to discuss subjects as diverse as they were varied with the aim of “building better relationships”, according to Jean-Marc Lhermet. The ambition is to bring out and strengthen a “coherent and common” project.

At the heart of these discussions, a summary was notably produced on the aspect of the “reinforced performance plan” enacted after the events that occurred in Argentina last summer. “Everyone took the time to express themselves on what was put in place in the different teams,” adds the vice-president of the FFR. “There are aspects that worked, other points that need improvement. It is therefore collective and collaborative intelligence. We want more transversality. The living environment is a living and moving organization. We must answer this question: how. create an ecosystem, around teams of France, who will make our players even more efficient? Performance takes into account two things: the game, the pride of the jersey we wear.”

A mix of staff to share skills

There has been a lot of discussion about the game. To finalize this seminar, the coaches put themselves in a situation during an exercise. In groups of two, they debated and organized a training session for the US Seynoise flag team and for the Gaudermen and Crabos de Toulon categories. The problems were different: defense in the scoring zone for the USS and counter-attack/footing game for the RCT.

Fabien Galthié navigated within the two groups to listen and provide his remarks. On the kicking game, he explained his method and the problems he encountered at international level against foreign kickers. He was supported by Patrick Arlettaz. On the other side, Laurent Sempéré spoke in particular with David Courteix, and even David Ortiz. At the same time, medical staff, team managers, physical trainers and other video analysts organized meetings to share their work and provided feedback.

After scribbling the flipcharts, each coach took to the road to put the concocted exercises into practice. This episode was used as a “laboratory” of experiments in front of an unknown audience of which he knew neither the number nor the level. Quite a challenge. “Adapting is the life of a coach, insists Laurent Sempéré. The weather conditions, the number of players, the injuries… It doesn’t change us too much, on the contrary, it trains us to be faced with that.”

Fabien Galthié and Laurent Sempéré went to La Seyne-sur-Mer

Around 6:30 p.m., the coach, accompanied in particular by his forward coach and several other managers such as Gaëlle Mignot, Jean-Marc Béderède, and even Philippe Boher, set foot on the Marquet pitch. Within one of the Var rugby institutions, he supervised and provided advice to the flagship team of US Seynoise, current 2^e of Federal 1.

This group, based two thirds of players from the Toulon area, put itself at the service of this exercise, and even beyond expectations according to Laurent Sempéré: “Since the beginning, we have done a lot of theory, in the gym. It was a pleasure for us to get back on the field, this rugby that we all come from. Plus, here in La Seyne, it’s a historic club… We We all had an anecdote to tell about this club, this lawn (smile)! We also wanted to put into practice what we had theorized so far to see if it worked or not. needed to confront the reality of It’s good for us, we share with the clubs and we put into practice what we talked about for three days. We said to ourselves that in the workshops, we wanted a light intensity but they went all out… and. They only accelerated (laughs)! It was nice too. We saw them happy to participate, so for us it’s all the more interesting.”

Secondly, after having had the Seynois youth scrapped around rucks and defense exercises in the scoring zone, the former Stade Français Paris hooker drew a positive result from this seminar. “It’s always an interesting moment of exchange. Rather than racking our brains on our own, we might as well put all the strengths of the federation to work together. There was a feedback. We have to learn from each discipline, from each staff. We see what we can vary from one team to another. It is also an opportunity for us to come together, and to see that we often share the same objectives, the same issues. It’s good to share time outside of competitions. […] There are bridges, synergies to be found.”

In a few weeks, after taking stock of these exchanges, the staff of the XV of France have scheduled a new visit to the RCT Campus, from January 8 to 10, to hold a seminar with a view to the next 6 Nations. We told you that the rooster takes a liking to lily of the valley.