Nice-Premium: What is your opinion on rugby in the Alpes-Maritimes?
Henri Mondino: The opinion of the French Rugby Federation is that the Alpes-Maritimes is a department with strong development potential. Many projects can be implemented there, especially competitions, because in my view, that is what our young people lack the most to keep them engaged in playing rugby. There needs to be a capacity for competition at the highest level, meaning they should have the opportunity to face the best national level as often as possible.
The second observation is that it is indeed necessary to develop rugby schools with proper infrastructures. This is an appeal to local authorities to support the clubs. It is important to offer a safe environment for playing, a practice supervised by educational leaders, and quality infrastructure so that young people can enjoy themselves.
NP: Exactly 7 clubs for almost 200 communities in the 06 department, isn’t that too few? Shouldn’t we perhaps encourage or involve some communities with certain other clubs to create a larger pool?
HM: You have just pointed out the harsh reality of our problem. We increasingly believe less in a parish rugby connected to a single club and more in the pooling of communities through the territory programs led by the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes. With over a million inhabitants in this department, there is room to create 20 to 30 clubs and to ensure that initiatives taken by individuals are supported by the elected officials who surely have a real need for oversight of our populations and young people who lack guidance.
NP: We experienced the rise of sports studies promotions in the 1980s with the Ségurane college and then later at Parc-Impérial. Today, nothing remains; will there be an opportunity in the coming years to see a revival of sports studies in the department?
HM: Today, it’s no longer called sports studies but rugby hope centers. I believe there will be only one per region, and currently, it is in Hyères, after having been in Nice for a long time.
The project I will lead in my next term will involve replacing it by creating federal training centers that will go through the sports section, which is a sports study in your language as you understand it. However, it will be necessary to create not just one, but one per municipality or metropolitan community. In this department, there could be five high-level sports sections, because instead of the hope center which disappeared a few years ago, we should have immediately advocated for a training center like those that exist in Dijon and other regions, thus allowing our young people to stabilize in the practice of Rugby.
NP: Finally, you are a unifying element of rugby sevens, which we hope will soon be an Olympic discipline. How can rugby sevens be established in France and in the Alpes-Maritimes?
HM: Rugby sevens is developing strongly among youth categories, both girls and boys. To further establish it, it’s very simple, we need to bring to Nice the events that France must have, meaning the IRB Rugby tournament must have a stop here in Nice.
We will strongly advocate after the Under-18 European Cup to initiate projects that will, like London and Edinburgh, allow us to have a stop in the international rugby sevens tournament, just like Hong Kong, Dubai, or Wellington. This is achievable, given the proximity to Italy, close to Spain, with investors who seek a strong image. I believe that rugby sevens, as initiated by the principality of Monaco in 1987-1988, has a place in the city of Nice. I am its biggest fan and supporter, and I am more than willing to pass the ball to Christian Estrosi to convert the try.
