Monday’s editorial by Emmanuel Massicard… I won’t teach you anything here, telling you right away that rugby cultivates the art of complexity. On all fronts. It is so, and it is very likely that it will never change. When so many other sports therefore seek to be close to simplicity in order to reach the greatest number, ours, on the contrary, maintains its regulatory meanders and other subtleties invisible to the appreciation of ordinary mortals.
This weekend again, on the air of rules which lend themselves to ever more controversy, certain Top 14 matches such as Clermont-Bordeaux or even Toulon-Castres have become clearly “incomprehensible” in the eyes of the general public. And sometimes even aficionados, who go as far as social networks for lack of talking to each other at the stadium bar.
Collapsed scrums, forward passes, high tackles? It’s all good to get lost in. Because each action – with the freeze frame that now inevitably accompanies it – has its interpretation, its regulatory translation and therefore its truth of the moment. Several truths even, and therefore none that imposes itself. If you want to believe me, the overdose of video calls has something to do with it.
A point on which rugby is always consistent, straight in its boots: the pleasure that the players have to find themselves, off the field, once they have hung up. Ended careers. This was particularly true this weekend in Paris, when the winning captains of all the World Cups met at our invitation, on the eve of the 69th Midi Olympique rugby Oscars ceremony. Excuse a little: David Kirk (1987), Nick Farr-Jones (1991), François Pienaar (1995), John Eales (1999), Martin Johnson (2003), John Smit (2007), Richie McCaw (2011 and 2015) and Siya Kolisi (2019). Monsters, these guys. Just as many examples of kindness and simplicity. And real kids, like the reigning champion Springbok captain and very happy to be among the legends. As if amazed to also belong to this circle of prestige.
Again, nothing changes. And that’s good. To our common delight, our Oscars bear direct witness to the richness of our sport, its history and the greatness of its players who perpetuate the tradition.
Without wishing to push our limits, allow us to appreciate the unique chance given to us to have to carry such a heritage and to share it with you, with these trophies celebrating every year the best French, European and global. The promise is always beautiful and it obliges us, too, to offer French rugby the most beautiful of exhibitions. No one does it better, outside of football.
So we’ll meet again next week to decipher the 2022 winners of a grand vintage. A week after Karim Benzema’s Ballon d’Or, another number nine is still advancing: Antoine Dupont. The scrum half of Stade Toulouse and the XV of France is the big favorite to his own successions, launched towards a new double Oscar gold and World. Unheard of on the scale of our sport, above the Rives, Blanco, Sella and other Dusautoir who have already engraved their name on the Oscars list.
Verdict this Monday, during a simply magical evening which will once again bear witness to the beauty of our sport. In the midst of the greatest international and French players gathered to share an exceptional moment. Yes, it is our happiness.
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The editorial: magic