Blayais Rugby Stadium: keeping the impregnable citadel

Undefeated at home this season, Stade Blayais Rugby must progress when it plays far from its bases in order to hope to participate in the final stages of Fédérale 3. This season again, the club from the north of Gironde can rely on its main partner : the Blayais nuclear power plant.

At the foot of the Blaye citadel, the Bernard Delors stadium has the appearance of a fortress this season: Stade Blayais has not lost any of its five Fédérale 3 matches there. Guys, no one should come and take the citadel this season!” says Sébastien Vedrenne, new coach of the first team, to his players.
For the moment, the citadel is impregnable, but the results outside are less rosy : four matches, four defeats. “ Let’s be inspiring outside for longer, guys. Longer, stronger, together ! ”
The first phase of the championship is over, there are now nine matches left for the Blayais to try to qualify for the final phases. “ We are going to enter winter rugby. In winter rugby, it’s not those who play the best who win… It’s those who are the most united, who make the fewest mistakes, and those who want to win. “

Tuesday evening before training, Charlotte Maes, director of the Blayais nuclear power plant, is on the Delors lawn. Signature, handshake : the partnership between the center and the club is extended for one season. “ This is a historic partnership. The central has financially supported the club for 30 years“ recalls Pascal Pezzani, the president of Stade Blayais Rugby, himself a former director of the nuclear power plant. Almost 10 000 euros paid this season to help the operation of a club whose budget amounts to 250 000 euros.

Within the Blaye first team, around fifteen players work at the Blayais nuclear power plant. Located in Braud-et-Saint-Louis (20 kilometers from Blaye), it is the leading employment provider in northern Gironde. : more than 2 500 people work there.

The good relations between the club and the center allow president Pascal Pezzani to have the argument of employment when building his workforce. “ New players must be sought out by explaining to them that there are jobs in Blaye, particularly at the nuclear power plant. And at the power plant, there are not only engineers, there are many professions. “

Job or work-study training opportunities for younger players, like Lucas Hourcastagnou, 22, from Blaye. The three-quarter center of Stade Blayais is in the second year of BTS industrial control and automatic regulation. “ I was in reorientation, and this work-study opportunity at EDF at the power plant allowed me to stay in Blaye and continue to play rugby here. Without that, I would surely have gone to Bordeaux or elsewhere. “

Every day at the center, Lucas Hourcastagnou can potentially come across one of his teammates, or even the forwards coach, Benjamin Laplagne. “ We live rugby, we work rugby since several of us from the team are at the CNPE du Blayais. It’s special and good to livesays Adrien Durieux, second line at Stade Blayais, logistics team leader at the center. We tell each other our nonsense from the weekend, we talk about our matches, our actions over coffee on Monday morning. And it’s loud sometimes ! “On the pitch as well as at the center, the group lives well.

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