Guy Novès, the former manager of Stade Toulousain (1993-2015) and coach of the XV de France (2016-2017), recently announced that he supports “Ovale Ensemble”, the opposition list to Bernard Laporte who will present himself in the FFR elections in December 2020. In a long post on Facebook , he went back on his commitment alongside Florian Grill: "When I got off the XV of France, I declared, under the guise of the anger, that I would support those who come forward, whoever they are, against the current FFR government. It is well known: anger is a bad counselor and time has not failed to make my attitude serene and positive. The interest of French rugby is much more important than my resentment: it forces me to position myself not against, but in favor of a project. ”
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And the former Red and Black mentor added: "I went to an Ovale Ensemble meeting in Colomiers at the end of January and I was seduced for two hours by the skill and intelligence of Florian Grill. It is rare to see someone get involved as he does, with such a mastery of all files, favored by his experience as president of the Ile-de-France league and business manager. In addition, he knows how to surround himself with experts and he pays particular attention to a sector that is close to my heart: training. Yes, Florian Grill is perfectly representative of all of French rugby and it seems to me like a real oxygen ball, of course ... Oval. ”
“Training is, in my opinion, the main cause of the loss of licensees. Because it is not a defeat of the XV of France which makes lose licensees, no more than a victory makes it gain "
Guy NovèsGuy Novès argues that "the shadow on the board would come from the dangerousness of our discipline: I use the conditional on purpose because the statistics on the subject deserve to be balanced". "In our time, the slightest incident is considerably amplified: it sounds like a thunderclap and this outrageous media coverage creates a psychosis which is not to encourage children and their parents to choose rugby," he regrets.
According to him, the emphasis should be on "training": "It is, in my opinion, the main cause of the loss of licensees. Because it is not a defeat of the XV of France which makes lose licensees, no more than a victory makes it gain: tricolor successes can encourage a kid to discover rugby but he will stay at home if he is disappointed. Who says training says trainers. It is they who give the child the desire to join the rugby school and, above all, to return to it. Because if the kid is thrown twenty times, in the mud, on a tackle bag, he will say that he got bored and that he no longer wants to "play rugby". Florian Grill has this same conviction, he wants to relaunch the Staps and he is right: for too long, gym teachers have been put aside. ” Words from a former gym teacher.
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