This Friday evening, Ludovic Cayre will officiate as central referee for the Top 14 final between UBB and Toulouse. An opportunity to learn a little more about the Lot-et-Garonnais, who discovered the Top 14 seven years ago.
Seriously injured neck at 15 years old
Ludovic Cayre’s life changed when he was only 15 years old. While playing rugby, the now referee seriously injured his neck. He tells : “At the age of 15, I suffered a serious neck injury following a tackle: I had placed my head on the wrong side at the time of impact…”
An operation was therefore necessary:After the shock, I was operated on at the Pellegrin hospital in Bordeaux. The surgical procedure was a C2 arthrodesis (spinal nerve number 2, editor’s note), C3 and C4. After that, the convalescence lasted almost a year. The cervical vertebrae had moved several millimeters compared to the norm tolerated by a human body. So I was very close to being in a wheelchair.”
He turned to refereeing at 17
Declared unfit to play rugby, the man who is now 35 years old turned to the whistle: “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.”
Subsequently, the person concerned will climb the ranks, one by one. Today he is a few hours away from refereeing his first Top 14 final. A highlight for any French referee on the planet.
He grew up in Lot-et-Garonne
Ludovic Cayre grew up in the South. The referee of this final between Toulouse and UBB is from Lot-et-Garonne and more precisely from Duras. We are talking here about a small town that had a little over 1,200 inhabitants in 2021. For the small geographical point, Duras is a little over 60 kilometers southeast of Bordeaux.
First Pro D2 match in 2015
Like any referee, Ludovic Cayre started with youth meetings, before moving into amateur rugby and giving himself the right to discover the professional world. It was on September 4, 2015 that Lot-et-Garonnais discovered the professional world during a Perpignan – Mont-de-Marsan in Aimé-Giral. A first step into the high level, which he never left afterwards.
First Top 14 match in 2017
Two years after launching his career in Pro D2, it was the Top 14 that opened its doors to Ludovic Cayre. The latter was on the whistle during a Montpellier-Oyonnax for his big premiere. Semi-professional since 2019, he was a touchline referee during the last final between Toulouse and La Rochelle but also during the half between UBB and La Rochelle in Saint-Sébastien. This Friday evening, he will be in the middle of the field. The logical sequence of things…
