Chenais: “We’ve planted the seeds”

On Saturday 17 October, Nantes’ U18 side lost 18-16 away to Bayonne in round 3 of the Crabos championship. Mickael Chenais, head of regional elite rugby at the Pays de la Loire league, wants to use it to show there is rugby beyond France’s south-west.

He arrived in Pays de la Loire a year ago and now oversees the league’s three top-level youth squads.

“Bringing performance back to the region”

Name, age, occupation?

Mickael Chenais, 40, rugby coach.

What is your role?

Head of regional elite rugby at the Pays de la Loire league, which covers Vendée, Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Sarthe and Mayenne. It’s a league that is fighting, and fighting well, when it comes to performance. I was recruited to lead what we call the league’s performance hub. When Hugues Meilheureux (the league president, ed.) was elected with his team, they set out a plan to bring performance and elite rugby back to the region. New posts were created and I was hired to run the sporting project, which follows from political decisions and a strategic aim: bringing performance back to the region.

Who do you work with?

The French federation, the league of course, and the departmental committees. We work hand in hand with the committees on talent identification from under-14 level. On top of that there are the club technical advisers, managed by the league technical advisers, my colleagues.

Stade Nantais as the host club

In practical terms, what does that look like? Facilities, training pitches, staff numbers, contracts, volunteers?

We rely on Stade Nantais. It’s the host club, as we call it: everything happens there. Players we identify from other clubs come to train in Nantes on Wednesdays, under their own steam. Nantes is central in our region, and it’s the club that brings sporting guarantees, the driving force given its results, both with the first team and the under-23s.

A cluster?

Stade Nantais wanted to position itself on performance, and when Hugues Meilheureux arrived he and his team clearly wanted to move forward. I’m a full-time employee and we have three squads: under-15s in the Gaudermen, under-16s in the Alamercery and under-18s in the Crabos, the three highest youth levels. I manage those three squads and lead their staffs. There are three people per staff, split between Stade Nantais and the league: four at the league and five coaches at the club. All in all, with fitness coaches, physios and officials, we have a staff of 20.

Promotion at U16, survival at U18

Whose facilities do you use?

The Pascal-Laporte stadium in Nantes. We have high-level goals. When I arrived last year, the under-16s were one level below the national tier. The aim was to get them promoted to the Alamercery and to keep our place in the Crabos. That’s what happened: promotion in the Alamercery, survival in the Crabos, targets met. Thanks to the federation’s new reform, we also have proper follow-up, with players who will be listed as high-level athletes. That was a stated goal, and today we have a Pôle Espoirs Rugby (regional academy) in Pays de la Loire, which lets us keep our best prospects. Before, they left to strengthen our rivals and we had no way of keeping them. It will take time, but this year’s goal is to stay in the Alamercery and the Crabos.

So you’ve stopped watering the desert?

We’ve planted the seeds, now we nurture them…

And the girls?

Fertile ground, even though I’m not directly in charge of their development. I know it’s growing. There’s a regional training and performance centre run by the league: nine girls this year, there were four before. It’s improving in quality and in numbers. The aim is to build step by step.

From Nogent-le-Rotrou to Stade Français

How did you get into rugby?

I’m from the Paris area, born in Versailles. My parents were butchers and caterers; they moved to the Centre region and I started rugby at Nogent-le-Rotrou, the capital of the Perche. My father played, he took me into the dressing rooms when I was three, and little by little I got hooked. We moved back to Paris when I was 10. In 1996 I joined US Métro. I went through the Pôle Espoirs academy at the Lycée Lakanal, with regional selections, then played for Stade Français’ under-21s until I was 21. I stopped playing at 27 because I wanted to move into coaching. I’d had a career, you could call it that, I played for so many years.

In which position?

Scrum-half, fly-half, playmaker. Then I took my coaching qualifications. I coached youth teams at Racing, then at Stade Français, at U14, U16 and U18 level, and at PUC too. I spent a year and a half in New Zealand. Alongside that I worked in finance for 10 years, riding around Paris on my scooter to coach.

I want to show there is rugby beyond the south-west and that we can compete with those teams.

Mickael Chenais

From suit and tie to New Zealand

What was your original training?

A master’s in business management. I worked in that field for nearly 10 years and went through a “small burnout”. I wanted to get away from Paris: I bought a plane ticket to New Zealand and lived there for a year and a half. When I came back to France I didn’t want to put the suit and tie back on, I wanted to live from my passion. I heard about an opening in Dijon, in Burgundy, at the Pôle Espoirs academy: I was the academy coach and deputy head of the structure. Then I coached the ABCD XV Crabos side (the regional combined team, ed.). I was offered the chance to work with Hugh Chalmers, a former New Zealand professional, before coming to Pays de la Loire.

Where were you in New Zealand?

I worked quite a lot on the east of the North Island, where I played, with a last game of rugby in Napier. It was for fun, but I wanted to, I got caught up in it.

“There is rugby beyond the south-west”

Any message to pass on?

I love my job, I love what I do, I love the people I work with. The outlook within the league and Pays de la Loire is positive, the momentum is good, and I want to be here for the long term. Like today in Bayonne (an 18-16 defeat, ed.), I want to show there is rugby beyond the south-west and that we can compete with those teams.