Didier Casadeï (Périgueux): outburst against the fixture list

Shrinking budget, 15 to 20 new players, a season without relegation: Périgueux coach Didier Casadeï reviews his club and the economics of Nationale.

Two wins in five rounds, at Rennes (24-17) and against Bourgoin (27-23), and two defeats by five points, against Massy (20-25) then on Friday at Suresnes (27-22): Périgueux have started their Nationale season with a largely rebuilt squad. The club host Orléans on Saturday 3 October, before travelling to Carcassonne. Their coach, Didier Casadeï, a former loosehead prop for Brive and France, talks budget, player development and the fixture list. An interview.

How is Périgueux doing?

We’re in the thick of the start of the season. There’s a run of 14 matches between now and mid-December, and I think we’ll only be able to draw a first assessment at the end of that period. We’ve had a lot of movement this season, with a fairly significant budget cut and a group that was reaching the end of a cycle, having started out in Nationale 2 with some players who had got a bit older. So we had to refresh the squad, because it was necessary, and also because we didn’t really have a choice.

“Nationale’s economics aren’t viable”

That’s quite similar to the picture for a lot of Nationale clubs, in the end…

The economic context for Nationale clubs is extremely difficult, in the sense that you get no support from the Federation, nor from the League, nor from a broadcaster. You have constraints and very little money coming in. Add to that a very difficult economy at the moment… So clubs are a bit stretched to make ends meet. We’ve also obviously been burned by what happened at Blagnac, Carqueiranne, Tarbes and Niort. Today, Nationale’s economics aren’t viable for clubs, and you need people who commit themselves, as our chairman Francis Roux has done for many years, and who keeps working to balance a budget that remains in the black. Well done to him.

Sowing seeds and looking for the gaps

What’s rugby life like in this tricky triangle formed by Toulouse to the south, Bordeaux to the west and Clermont to the north-east?

Player development is still tricky here. Hugo Reus came through in the Dordogne, but very few players are developed in this region, and among those who were, there was Bosviel, for example. It was possible. We really need to get better at developing players, so we can bring through young players at a good enough level to play in Nationale. It’s a big job on the fundamentals, including the coaches too. And then it’s up to us to try to be effective by taking on young players who aren’t kept on by professional clubs, and trying to raise them to a good level through daily training. In fact, the challenge is twofold: first, the long term and player development, sowing seeds that might germinate in five, six, ten years; and second, being smart and sharp enough to go and find those who slip through the gaps.

“Nationale, I insist, play good rugby”

You experienced the early days of professionalism, your record as a player speaks for itself: how do you view rugby over the last 30 years?

Let’s say I’m living through something in Nationale similar to what I went through in 1996 or 1997, when rugby turned professional. Some made that choice, others preferred to keep a job and take things easier at nearby clubs. I’d say that those who had the chance to be internationals made the right choice, and those who fell a bit short made the wrong one. Today, I find myself in exactly the same situation we were in 30 years ago. Many players are developed at professional clubs, but in the end few will get to play there at the level they had hoped for at the start.

And those players have to make choices. To tell themselves: “Right, today, I’m not good enough to play in Top 14 or Pro D2, I choose to try my luck in Nationale,” with really very low wages, one or two-year fixed-term contracts. Or else to decide they’ll work, train for a future job, and play rugby as amateurs. I leave the choice to my players, and I never lie to them.

That said, there are players capable of bringing the actions, the intensity, the demands of top-level rugby, because there’s still a very good standard in Nationale. Having had the chance to coach at every level, whether Pro D2 or Top 14, there’s clearly a gap between each of these levels, but Nationale, I insist, play good rugby. Today, the standard is so high that it’s impossible for a player to hold down another job alongside it. You need players who are 100% committed, that’s for sure. I like my players to have dreams, because you need dreams in life, that matters, but also to try to do everything possible to give that dream a chance of coming true.

“Rugby is first and foremost a combat sport”

With this unusual season without relegation, what is Périgueux’s ambition?

Today, it’s hard to say, with 15 to 20 new players at the start of the season. I had to pay young prospects out of my own budget so they could come and train with the first team, that has to be taken into account too. But the real objective goes beyond sport: it has to be about doing everything possible to make better players every day. That’s the truth of it.

The top level is about paying attention to every detail, whether that’s the physical side, the technical side, studying the opposition, daily demands and knowing what you’re offering and what the opposition will offer. And adding a very strong team mentality on top of that. That’s what we try to work on, with enjoyment too, because the truth is that players need to be happy doing what they do, but within a rugby competition. It’s first and foremost a combat sport, many tend to forget that: rugby is first and foremost about wanting to get past your opponent. I’ve had plenty of players who had extraordinary careers but didn’t have huge physical gifts, didn’t have huge technical gifts, but had the mentality.

Five months with no money coming in

Didier Casadeï, a message to pass on?

I have an “outburst” to get off my chest. I can’t understand why Nationale starts before Pro D2 and Top 14, when we have fewer matches to play than they do. We’re forced to resume on 20 August when players’ contracts start on 1 July. I’ve found this fixture list absolutely absurd for four years now. We finish with a match in April, and clubs find themselves in difficulty, with no money coming in during April, May, June, July and August. Five months!