Growing fast and seen as a wide-open door for introducing people to rugby, recreational rugby may be a “bad idea” according to Lionel Girardi, a rugby educator and coach for the past 25 years and author of the book “FFR: analyses et perspectives, relancer le rugby à XV, seul garant de nos valeurs!” (éditions Baudelaire).

What do we mean by recreational rugby?

The recreational rugby we are talking about is played without contact, without any physical battle, often five against five on a pitch 35 to 45 metres wide, smaller than in fifteen-a-side rugby, but the gaps between players are far wider: you go from 4.4 metres in the fifteen-a-side game to a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 9 metres in this recreational rugby, bearing in mind that 9 metres is the gap used in sevens. It seems important to me to explain properly that this recreational rugby is a form of the game within the FFR.

What are the tactical or physical implications of that width for a five-against-five?

That width, combined with a game with no contact and no physical battle, just touches, steers the activity exclusively towards an expansive, three-quarter style of play designed to break through in wide spaces: in other words a game purely of evasion, speed and footwork. By its very nature, this form of the game is very restrictive in terms of body shape, shutting out the slow, heavy players, men and women, whose movement is not suited to a game based solely on evasion, and doing away with the challenge and the physical battle, the tackle, which hugely limits the number of participants it can take in.

Isn’t it still a fine way in to discovering rugby?

It is also worth drawing a clear distinction between non-contact rugby in schools and non-contact rugby in our clubs, recreational rugby. In schools, the aim of touch rugby is to introduce pupils to the sport and then try to recruit them into our clubs so that they compete in our fifteen-a-side game. That said, there is food for thought between a non-contact introduction at school and a practice with contact, the DNA of our sport and of our federation: fifteen-a-side rugby. It will be important to go into that in detail later in another column.

So recreational rugby is not a “pump” for recruiting into fifteen-a-side rugby?

Recreational rugby in clubs, for our youngsters and for our adults, is so far removed from the characteristics specific to fifteen-a-side rugby and so restrictive in terms of athletic qualities that it is utopian to think this form of oval-ball activity would be the solution for recruiting and reviving fifteen-a-side rugby among our young players (cadets and juniors) and among our seniors. Unfortunately, this form of the game has far more of the opposite effect, drawing our players towards a fun and easy activity, worsening the shortage of numbers notably in our senior second teams. It looks dangerous for the clubs that use it to revive their XV sides, because although the solution looks quick and easy, its effectiveness will not last, hiding the real problem: development at the rugby school and among our young players (cadets and juniors) that is too weak to feed the senior sides.

A perverse effect, then?

Yes, the development of touch rugby competitions then becomes a competitor to fifteen-a-side rugby and highlights an inconsistency between the FFR and the Fédération Française de Touch, which is in charge of competitions and of the development of touch rugby in France.

There are still advantages to playing recreational rugby?

Yes, but let us not get this wrong: the fight for recreational rugby must be to attract volunteers through a fun and sociable oval-ball activity inside the club, and that is a very good thing for our clubs! The competition and tournament side is not a mission for the FFR, since the FF de Touch exists and is mandated to handle it.

Your provisional conclusion?

Recreational rugby must remain an oval-ball activity that generates volunteering, which has nothing to do with the fight to revive fifteen-a-side rugby, a fight that concerns every competitive age group leading to playing fifteen-a-side rugby, and more particularly the minimes (under-14s), cadets (under-16s) and juniors (under-19s).