General Assembly of the League in Uzès: Occitan rugby, forever the first!

De gauche à droite, Frank Séropian, président du RC Uzès, Jean-Luc Chapon, maire d’Uzès, Alain Doucet, président de la Ligue Occitanie et Matthieu Monchaux, à la tête du comité départemental du Gard. MIDI LIBRE – ALPHONSE GIOVANNINI

Last weekend, Uzès hosted the general assembly of the Occitanie Rugby League. Overview.

Two days to take stock of a very rich season. Last weekend, Uzès hosted the general assembly of the Occitanie Rugby League (LOR). The last for President Alain Doucet, whose mandate ends in November.

The LOR is a big machine: 13 departments and therefore 13 steering committees, 77,296 licensees with an increase of 9.3%, including 16.6% at women's and 17.2% in Gard for 446 clubs in total, and an indisputable World Cup effect.

A moral report from the general secretary, Jean-Yves Mouret, impressive in terms of figures, which confirms the enthusiasm for rugby in this vast territory and which contributes to its attractiveness. Occitan rugby, forever the first, on lands where it is more than a game, a religion which carries loud and clear the values ​​of the associative world.

Strong increase in licensees, in the Region and in the Gard department

And a report which shows how much rugby is diversifying: "It's not just the XV game, hammered Alain Doucet,but at 5, at 7, at 10, at 13 in several categories, male and female. There is no sub-rugby. Not all clubs have the possibility of fielding more than 15 players on a match sheet. The main thing is to play and keep our sport alive. It’is a vector of social cohesion and a contribution to living together".

The educational environment supported by the LOR, with the training of teachers but also the training of executives, is a real axis of development in a large Region which has twice as many educators as its neighbors of New Aquitaine and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. In the clubs, "our rugby schools are doing well, 191 are certified as well as local units, an Occitan specificity because we want to develop rugby for everyone and everywhere", specified the referent Julie Cuminetti.

And the Gard in all that ? The president of RC Uzès Franck Séropian and that of the departmental committee Matthieu Monchaux declared themselves honored by the trust shown by organizing this AG in the ducal city. The department had 4,335 licensees for the 2023-2024 season, i.e. 629 more than the previous one!

"Gard rugby does not count for plums !"

Attached to Provence until 2016, Gard joined Occitanie in 2017. In the territory, oval has developed in the 1960s with the joint creation of the nuclear site and the Bagnols/Marcoule club. Nîmes followed in 1963, Alès in 1964, Les Angles 1968 and Uzès in 1979. Today, there are 24 Gard clubs and 28 approved stadiums. As much as in Lot, Gers or Tarn-et-Garonne, for example. No, as MM. Doucet and Séropian, "Gardois rugby does not count for plums" !

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