Hervé Padioleau, born on 1 May 1953, soon to be 73, is at the age of having had several lives and is far from finished. Alphonse Allais said: “I have decided to live forever and so far it’s going well.” What has that got to do with rugby? Nothing and everything!

A life off the beaten track

A curious path for this man of the Loire, now retired (but hyperactive) in Saumur: banker, swimming-pool installer for “Christine Caron”, a former student of the Briaste agricultural college, husband of a pharmacist, father of a boy “involved in rugby in La Baule”. He discovered the joys of the oval ball late, at secondary school: “We had a teacher who was from Agen, there was a whole gang of us, and we got hooked on rugby. We even set up a rugby team with the PE teacher to play in schools competitions.”

A late discovery, but a definitive one, and a new path in life. Hervé was originally a basketball player. When he suffered a serious knee injury, it was Philippe Vasallo, a legend of Alsace-Bagnolet and Nantes Basket, who treated him in his practice located (you couldn’t make it up) on boulevard du Massacre in Nantes.

From the “SAC” of Clisson to grant applications

Rugby? “Several of us wanted to carry on after our baccalaureate, so we went off to play at Clisson.” In which position? “I’m a bit too short for my weight.” A prop, then. “I became a branch manager at Crédit Agricole and when, at the general meeting, they had to find a treasurer, because I’d been unwise enough to sit at the front, the president appointed me treasurer of Sporting Athlétique Clissonnais, the SAC, on the spot!”

Then came a destiny made of departures and encounters, of loyal friendships. Having moved to Saint-Herblain, he ran into his old lock and mate from Clisson. And he put the boots back on, as a veteran, in the second team, needing to let off steam.

The “black belt in Excel spreadsheets” at the league’s service

So how does he now come to be putting together one grant application after another on behalf of the Pays de la Loire league? Simple: he is a “black belt in Excel”. Banking in the background, a gifted salesman, and that tremendous passion for rugby and taste for other people.

Today he gives the league a serious helping hand in the search for funding. The man himself explains: “I’ve always been passionate about figures, my banking past, having run two shops, finance has always been my thing, I’ve always loved it.”

The finger caught in the machinery was the league’s 2024 elections: “I knew the lads, they said to me: what do you want to do? I realised there was plenty out there to go and get, money among other things.” He set up alerts to go after calls for grant applications. “If I tell you that in total I’ve brought in around 100,000 euros, you’ll tell me that’s not much. But if I do that every year, I’d be very happy.”

The fight for health rugby

He is also the point man for health rugby and adapted rugby at the Pays de la Loire league, his other creed: “Health is sport. People have to take part in physical activity, they mustn’t stay sitting down.” So Hervé keeps knocking on the doors of the DRAGES, the regional sports authority, the ARS, the regional health agency, the French paralympic sports committee, the regional council and various foundations.

The last word? “Long may it last! May it last as long as possible!”