Wellington’s French Connection

FRENCH CONNECTION: French lessons at two Wellington schools extend to the Rugby field.

In recent years an exchange program between Lycee Robispierre in Arras and St Catherines and St Patricks colleges in Wellington has seen senior school age players at the schools experience the sport on the other side of the world.

Ben Nansett spent 10 months playing for Robispierre’s 7s side and for the local Rugby club in Arras.

With daily classes to work on his French, and an apartment in downtown Arras with three fellow exchange students, it was the quintessential French experience, albeit with a lot of time spent throwing a ball around.

Now playing for the Senior 1st side at Wellington club Marist St Pats, he remembers the gruelling training schedule Arras had him on, with practice all week, sometimes twice a day. “I came back a lot fitter, I was as thin as a bean pole.”
But the energy for the game was as enjoyable as it was intense, Ben says.

“Their passion was incredible; when they win a game it is as if you have won a championship. Rugby is their life.”

St Catherines 1st XV captain Lizzie Goulden found the same passion permeated women’s Rugby in Arras when she spent five months there during the European winter in 2009/2010.

“They love their Rugby.”

The camaraderie in the teams and the community in Arras was enhanced by the history behind the Wellington tunnels dug into the local countryside during World War 1.

Specialist tunnellers from the Kiwi Expeditionary Forces secretly dug kilometres of trenches under Arras, when the town was right on the front line of the war against the German forces.

The tunnels were named after towns in New Zealand and named Carriere Wellington to deference to their home half a world away. Since then, New Zealanders have been up there with Rugby as personal favourites for the people of Arras.

“They love New Zealand because of the tunnels and the All Blacks. That is how they know us,” Ben says.

France’s history with New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup has been defined by some hearty matches, with a near identical record.

Both teams have made two finals, three semi-finals and one quarter final in the six RWC tournaments since the competition began, with New Zealand ahead only by its 29-9 victory at Eden Park in the inaugural Webb Ellis Trophy final in 1987.

The Rugby World Cup 2011 New Zealand will continue that relationship, and for Ben and Lizzie it will be a fascinating occasion to amplify their bonds with French Rugby with Les Bleus booked to play at least once at Wellington Regional Stadium on October 1.