From the Vendée to the Sarthe, taking in Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire and Mayenne, the Pays de la Loire league counts 11,000 registered players and around sixty clubs. A vast territory, and no easy one to keep moving. At the end of a season that was a success both on the pitch and structurally, its president Hugues Meillereux looks back at the reasons to be satisfied and maps out the priorities ahead, starting with the growth of women’s rugby and a wider pool of young players.

A complete season, on the pitch and off it

The season in the Loire region “went really well”, Hugues Meillereux sums up. The regional finals served up a high standard of rugby, among the seniors as much as the age-grade sides, boys and girls alike.

At national level, the campaigns were a notch below the previous year, but several clubs went a long way. Stade Nantais and SCO Angers both reached the final in the U16 category. The SCO seniors, for their part, fell just short in the second leg of the promotion play-off to Fédérale 2. The U14s of La Roche-sur-Yon and Fontenay-le-Comte also enjoyed a fine run in the play-offs of the federal challenge, held in Alsace.

“Fine campaigns in any case, and ones that bode well for our Loire clubs and above all for our youngsters”, the president says with satisfaction.

Stade Nantais leading the train, but not alone

Members of Nationale 2, Stade Nantais look like the locomotive. The president, though, prefers the plural: “On a big freight train, you need several of them if you want to pull all the carriages properly.”

Alongside Nantes, he names La Roche-sur-Yon, Les Sables-d’Olonne, RCM, SCO Angers and Saint-Nazaire, as well as every club involved in the elite youth project, from Régionale 3 to Nationale 2. The league also leans on inter-regional partnerships: exchanges with Brittany (Rennes will come and train in Nantes in pre-season) and joint competitions with Centre-Val de Loire, notably in the women’s game.

Women’s rugby made a priority

Chosen by the FFR as a women’s rugby centre of excellence, the league now wants to build for girls what already exists for boys. “Our aim is really, just as with the boys, to put the same set-up in place for our young girls. It is a priority for the league”, insists Hugues Meillereux, who hopes to open new CELs, including women’s ones, and to make coaching and school rugby more attractive.

Stable numbers, a clear course

On the membership front, the number of players remains steady: “We haven’t lost any, and we haven’t gained any either.” The balance does tip the right way in the women’s game, which is growing, and the league has added a club with ARF 72, an exclusively women’s structure.

Growth will come less from creating clubs than from a network of satellite branches, following the example of the three clubs in Mayenne, cited for their rise in registered players. “The idea is to reach youngsters who wouldn’t have travelled for one reason or another. These ‘satellite branches’ let us reach a new population of players, among the young in particular”, the president concludes.