Members of the French parliamentary XV with, in the center, Claire Martin, collaborator in the Senate, in Toulouse, September 2, 2023. CLAEYS TIMO/ABACA
While the whole world has its eyes on the Rugby World Cup organized in France, another, more confidential competition was recently played around the oval ball. From August 31 to September 7, the Parliamentary Rugby World Cup took place in Toulouse, Sarlat (Dordogne) and Paris.
Eight teams (South Africa, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the European Parliament and France) met for this tournament created in 1995 and played for the first time in South Africa under the aegis of Nelson Mandela. Here, the players are not professionals, but parliamentarians, former parliamentarians, collaborators or agents of parliaments.
Most of the teams have been mixed since the last edition, which was held in Japan in 2019, and three women are part of the French team, the parliamentary XV. “We are happy to play with our male colleagues, they are warriors on the field, but true gentlemen off it; It is the esprit de corps and cooperation that brings us together in this rugby team, not that of competition,” explains Véronique Riotton, Renaissance MP.
A conservative vision of the oval ball
Unfortunately, this good atmosphere with humanist and sporting values was dampened during this edition: the delegations of the United Kingdom and South Africa announced several weeks before the start of the tournament that they refused to play against mixed teams.
An end of inadmissibility that the president of the 15th parliamentarian, Jean-François Portarrieu, welcomed in a circumspect manner. For the Horizons deputy for Haute-Garonne, who carries the values of rugby in his DNA, which he has practiced since childhood, the Anglo-Saxons hid behind an administrative motive to impose a conservative conception of this sport.
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The South African team, then that of England, have put forward the ban made by rugby federations on insuring players during matches involving plexus tackling if women participate. They are only allowed to take part in so-called recreational rugby matches, where they are tackled at the waist. “Their arguments are valid, but they refused on principle any change to the regulations. Our vision of parliamentary rugby is inclusive, they are there to win,” deplores Jean-François Portarrieu.
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Vice-president of the parliamentary XV and Renaissance MP, Annaïg Le Meur spoke before the match between the French team and the South Africans: “We wanted, with Véronique Riotton, to express our discontent and our vision of sport, and to defend all women in competition. This refusal from the South Africans and the English has completely cast a chill over the entire event, which is as much sporting as it is diplomatic, says the elected official, who is also the team’s physiotherapist. They have hijacked the game: our goal is not to win but to share time with other rugby-loving nations. »
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