the essential
Performing well in the national club championship, the Boule d’Or will compete in the Coupe de France pools in February in Clermont-Ferrand, where the level is very high.
La Boule d’Or is preparing to take on a new challenge, this time in the French Club Cup. After having maintained itself at the highest level in the national first division championship – the CNC1 where it has featured since the creation of this competition almost twenty years ago – the Coupe de France promises to be an equally tough challenge. The Gaillacois have already passed two rounds by winning against Lourdes away and Olemps at home. The next stage, for the sixty-four clubs qualified in eight groups of eight, will take place on February 1 and 2 in Clermont-Ferrand. At the end of these two days, only one club will be qualified per group and will earn the right to participate in the Grand Huit, the grand final. A narrow circle into which the Golden Ball once slipped. To achieve this, we will have to get out of the group where we find Mussidan (Dordogne), Arlanc (63, the team of Suchot and Fazzino), Canoès, where Meson Durk and Simon Cortès play, Les Pavillons-sois-Bois (93) , Ajaccio and Miribel (Ain). The first opponent for the Boule d’Or will be Ajaccio. The competition takes place on a classic formula of six heads to heads, three doubles and two triplets, but with a requirement for diversity in the composition of the team which must include six boys and two women.
A team block
The Gaillac group will be composed of Ludovic Massoutier, Jérôme Vayssettes, Théo Hergert, Florian Féral, Yohan Rouel, Vincent Vitalone, Sandra Bonhoure and Nadia Tabouche. The strength of the Boule d’Or, since its creation, has always been the collective, a value to which Jean-Pierre Buffel held until his death and which Marc Lafage and the management team continue. The cohesion and good climate that reigns between the players, who encourage each other in difficult times, will still be the best asset of the Boule d’Or. Its supporters had an edifying glimpse of it during the national club championship: the Gaillacois, initially mistreated, recovered to finish third, one point behind the first two qualified for the final. The team exports well and easily finds its feet on the road where the group becomes tighter. If the Boule d’Or beats Ajaccio, a young and compact team, it will be one of the last four elected. Marc Lafage does not make any bets and is content with “we will play our luck to the fullest, as usual”. Humility is also one of the values of the Boule d’Or.
Canada
