Rugby Union: Vannes in Top 14 ? The new rugby hype that is conquering all of Brittany

Vainqueur de Béziers en demi-finale, Vannes vise le titre et la montée en Top 14 contre Grenoble, ce samedi à Toulouse. MAXPPP – Nicolas Creach

Opposed to Grenoble this Saturday (5:30 p.m.) in the Pro D2 final, the RCV has the historic opportunity to move up to the Top 14. A great first for an entire region, long indifferent to oval ball.

With the possible accession of Vannes to the Top 14 on Saturday, Brittany, long sealed off from the charms of rugby, found a locomotive to put an end to this historical anomaly and make itself a place in Ovalie.

Lands with Gaelic roots with strong cultural, commercial and tourist links with Great Britain, the region seemed destined to become infatuated with the XV game. However, it was not until 2016 and the rise of the Rugby Club de Vannes to Pro D2 that a Breton club achieved pro status.

Well established at the turn of the century, "rugby disappeared in the 1920s, in the 1930s and after the Second World War", points out Loïc Ravenel, researcher at the International Center for Sport Studies (CIES).

Rugby considered too violent by Catholic patronages

The explanation most often cited is the distrust of Catholic patronages, very powerful in Brittany, towards this sport "judged as too violent and as a sport which led to body-to-body contact, while football had prevented this", admitted Mr. Ravenel.

But according to Joris Vincent, lecturer at the University of Lille, specializing in the history of sport, the issue was also "politics". "The Republicans from 1870 wanted to regain power over the youth […] through& rsquo;intermediary of the establishment and development of sporting practices" around rugby, with the figures of Pierre de Coubertin, Georges de Saint-Clair or Franz Reichel, he explained.

Institutional control of the southwest

Football is favored as a "counter-power against the Republic", in Brittany and throughout the north of France, he says. Trade will also be an important vector for the spread of rugby. Ports like Nantes and Saint-Nazaire were islands of rugby, but Bordeaux, the Canal du Midi and the wine trade routes anchored it in the southwest.

There will be greater investment in practices in the south

The phenomenon was accentuated when rugby acquired governing bodies. “When the French Rugby Federation was created in 1919, it was, let's say, leaders from the southwest, from Périgueux, from Toulouse, who would govern the federation and […] it “There will be a greater investment in practices in the south,” summarizes Mr. Vincent.