The only women’s Rugby team in Orne wants to play leading roles in Normandy

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Since September, a women’s Rugby team has been reborn from its ashes in L’Aigle (Orne). In September 2024, a new group of players was formed under the leadership of the club president, Patrick Duvaland the new coach, Alexis Berthillierstraight from Burgundy.

Two years ago, the club had a team of female cadets. Not autonomous, the team was in a meeting with Caen (Calvados). “The Ovalie Caennaise was playing at a good level so we have a few girls who came up, but we didn’t have a senior team” explains Patrick Duval.

Looking for new players

The girls found themselves without playing except that the passion for the game made some continue to come and support the boys. Seeing this, the president explains to them that if they get together, there will be the possibility of forming a team. “We boosted them and it took off well,” he emphasizes.

The girls put on their crampons again in September 2024. For the moment the team plays with 10. “I thought we were going to be 12 or 13 players. Finally, we quickly had four or five new people who joined the group” develops Alexis Berthillier. Two more new players trained last week.

We didn’t expect it to work so well

The president can rejoice, he now has an independent women’s team from the first year.

Form a group of 25 to 30 girls

Faced with this success, the club has a goal, to play at 15 in order to move up to Federal 2, but for that, more players are needed. Although the team is made up of 17 players, it would take at least “25 to 30” to play with 15 because “when we play with 15, there must be 22 on the match sheet”.

The advantage for the Aiglon club is that there is no women’s rugby team in Orne, whether in Argentan, Flers or Alençon. So even if for the moment, the new team is made up of “girls from the sector”, the club intends to detect players even beyond the country of L’Aigle.

We have the possibility of becoming a flagship club in the region in women’s rugby.

“We want to restart the machine”

For that, you need to have “a lot of players to start the movement and keep it going in the years to come,” explains the coach. A coach who has the distinction of being employed at the club. A rare occurrence in the department, “in Orne, we are one of the only ones”.

One of Alexis’ missions is to go to schools and look for young people. “We know that it is a long-term job. We started working on it a few years ago, but the person who was in charge of it had to leave,” recalls the president. Covid-19 has stopped everything. So with this new trainer, “we want to restart the machine”.

Two home games

In the meantime, Alexis is focusing on the women’s team which has already played its first official match, last October 6 against Pont-Audemer. “It was complicated because for most it was their first match, but the team is progressing day by day.” With this team, the coach intends to work first on building loyalty by ensuring that the girls enjoy rugby, but also with the staff.

At the end of the year, I hope that they will resign for the following years or even more and that at the same time other players come to join the group. We accept everyone.

If you want to go support this new team, the players will play at home on November 17 and 24, at the Jo-Maso stadium from 2 p.m. For these matches, allow three twenty-minute halves.

Practical
Are you a woman and would you like to join this new team? You can contact Alexis Berthillier on 07 88 06 19 78. Please note that training takes place on Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. For matches, the club is equipped with a minivan for travel.

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