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       #Post#: 30715--------------------------------------------------
       Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?
       By: JCFC Date: May 2, 2021, 9:21 am
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       Thanks to Channel 4, it was possible to enjoy watching the
       European Rugby Champions Cup Semi-Final yesterday, with Stade
       Toulaousain confirming their victory with a superb late try and
       Wayne Barnes making copious and commendable use of French
       (perhaps not always 100% accurately, unless my ears deceived
       me.)
       It did, though, raise wistful thoughts of how things used to be.
       In the 80s and 90s I used to spend every possible holiday break
       watching Rugby matches in France. (Before discovering the
       pleasures of German football!) The game in France has largely
       migrated from smaller towns to big cities. Lyon Olympique
       Universitaire, now in the Top 14 as simply Lyon, used to be a
       small club functioning in the lower divisions in a city with
       little tradition of interest in L'Ovalie. Similarly Montpellier
       had no great Rugby history. Support from municipal or regional
       authorities has led to changes of name: Montferrand sadly
       becoming ASM Clermont-Auvergne being the most obvious example,
       though many others have added the name of the département. Once
       mighty clubs no longer feature in the two top divisions -
       Lourdes, Tarbes, Dax, Narbonne, Mont de Marsan for starters.
       What chance is there that a club like SC Graulhet from a town
       with a population of fewer than 15000 people,will ever repeat
       its success in reaching championship semi-Finals?
       In yesterday's match the former Bègles club is now rebranded as
       Bordeaux-Bègles and its famous blue and white checkerboard
       shirts were now dark blue, spattered with a ridiculous array of
       adverts. I know that it is progress, that players have a right
       to make a living from the game, that clubs need sponsorship and
       Antipodean mercenaries to maintain their place at the top, that
       home-grown players will leave their local clubs to play for the
       city teams. It means a loss of much of the attraction of the
       local community ethos, but ultimately it is inevitable. I
       understand that - but I don't like it.
       As a refereeing note, my top four officials in those days were
       1. The correct and athletic grocer from Riscle, Jacques
       Saint-Guilhem.
       2. The ever-smiling Parisian pedagogue, André Peytavin
       3. The energetic Daniel Neyrat from Clermont-Ferrand
       4. Another teacher - Michel Lamoulie from Mont de Marsan, whose
       final ended early through injury, but who became a big cheese in
       the training and assessment of international referees.
       As the joke says, nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
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