The book Mémoires du rugby à l'ancienne by Serge Collinet
But back to Serge’s book, he is an illustrious personality of the world of modern rugby by turns player, educator, coach, writer of rugby. It has experienced the turn of this rugby of yesteryear rocked by amateurism to rugby today highlighted by professionalism and the media. This multi-faceted man embodies this passion for rugby and this desire to transmit to all those who have played and loved this sport. Whatever the level of practice, from professionals to amateurs, the soul of rugby players as well as the soul of Maori warriors accompanies them on a daily basis in their personal or professional lives.
In this book, Serge connects you to this old-fashioned rugby, this rugby away from cameras, selfies and social networks where memories are forever recorded in our memories rather than on a hard drive. He tells us, with his energetic and authentic writing, These intense moments of match, training, evening and many other situations. This story is a poignant testimony of this life of rugby player to life and death and which leaves unforgettable memories, often good memories but sometimes others a little less good, moments of life shared marking and transgenerational. Funny and intense, Mémoires du rugby à l’ancienne refers All rugby players to his memories and offers for others, curious and profane, an immersive journey, a moving story in rugby and its backstage.
The history of rugby contains colorful characters, some known have become stars and others that we can meet in the smallest clubs, men and women of the shadows working with their qualities and their defects for the love of the jersey and the unwitting promotion of what is rugby today. It is the story of men of temperament, that Serge also tells us in his book, the history of the meetings that were his, the story of his passion, his friendships, his disillusionments, in fact, the story of Serge the rugby player who for more than 40 years has contributed to the influence and development of this exceptional sport, a sport that has profoundly marked and transformed him.
The author of the book
Serge Collinet
Sports educator and writer
PE teacher turned STAPS teacher on the coach-trained relationship
Former sporting director of Stade Français
Author of numerous books on the training of rugby players
Revealing talents including Wesley Fofana
Preface n°1
Emile Ntamack
Rugby player and coach
46 caps for the France team and 26 tries
6 Brennus and 3 European Cups won with Stade Toulousain
Coach of the France Team
2 World Cups (semi-finalist in 1995 and finalist in 1999), he was a starter in the fabulous France – All Blacks of 1999 at the Stade de France
Preface n°2
Romain Ntamack
Rugby player
30 caps in the France Team and 145 points scored in November 2022
2 Brennus shields and 1 European Cup won with Stade Toulousain
Under-20 World Champion
2019 World Cup Quarterfinalist
2021 Six Nations Tournament Winner
A book published on November 16, 2022 by Editions Passiflore
Memories of old-fashioned rugby
A first big thank you to you Serge for this book that will move all those who have had the chance in their lives to wear a rugby jersey, the anecdotes you tell in this book take an authentic look at this old-fashioned rugby, this rugby that has made rugby what it is today, This rugby is transmitted from generation to generation. The Ntamack family and many others in rugby show that generations change and rugby evolves but the fundamentals and passion remain.
And finally a second big thank you to you Serge and PASSIFLORE editions for trusting me for the cover of this new book. I am delighted that in my own way, I can also bring a touch of color to the success of this book.
A relative confided to me after his retirement from sport that the pre-match atmosphere, the smell of camphor, the silent or noisy preparation of some players, the fetish socks, the rituals, the rants, the words said with sincerity and sometimes regretted is what he missed the most in his post-rugby period. Fortunately there are still friends. It is all these anecdotes lived or suffered sometimes touching sometimes delirious sometimes tragic but always told, often repeated that make rugby this exceptional sport that everyone should practice at least once in his life.
Team sport par excellence as Pierre Albaladejo, great French international player and sports commentator during the big maul said: I owe more to rugby than rugby owes me and coming from a rugby maestro like him, it’s a warm compliment.
Serge Collinet interview
Serge, could you introduce yourself?
I am passionate about rugby, I discovered this sport in CE2 with my teacher Mr. Closhourcade, it dates … And I never really left him despite a few detours through athletics or boxing.
You are one of the recognized coaches in the world of rugby, could you explain the basics of your method?
I was lucky to have had as a teacher René Deleplace whose methodology valuing the collective was caricatured to end up with a globalist boil that has never properly trained anyone. I also had coaches more concerned about the individual background of the player in his position like Marcel Peyresblanques and Jean-Yves Nérin. After trial and error, I built “my” approach that synthesizes the two previous ones by insisting on the weak point of French training at the base: the individual technique placed in the context of decision-making under the strongest possible time pressure.
Sports teacher and sports educator, how did the idea of writing novels and stories come to you?
I wanted to share my passion with people who love sport. Above all, I wanted to testify to the educational impact of sport in general, and rugby in particular, on our young people who badly, sometimes cruelly, need it. I am unhappy to see the poor place given to sport in the French education system.
“Rugby au cœur” is the testimony, lyrical it seems, of an educational adventure that lasted more than thirty years in a small college deprived of Paris.
What is the book that has marked you the most in your life?
Le Colonel Chabert de Balzac. The dignity and sense of honor carried by the doubly fallen hero touched me. That explains the nod in “Rugby at the heart”.
But I admit, I spent more time on the sports field than in the library, I am late in reading.
I also asked this question to Passiflore editions: you chose my painting Twickenham to illustrate your new book and I thank you, why this choice to use one of my paintings rather than a photo for the cover?
Your paintings are full of life and movement, I see the players moving, flying the ball, I feel the impacts. It’s strong. After, curious coincidence: two French internationals make a pass. It sounds like the essence of the preface by Émile and Romain Ntamack. The pass is the transmission, the ball the tradition. A balloon is more than a machine it is a legacy.
How do you view my artistic work?
I see it with my heart and body. I feel it more than I perceive. He’s alive.
A few words about your new novel?
I hope people will smell the smell of camphoric oil, the leather of an old Wallaby ball, the scent of the third half when they open it. Maybe they will hear the choruses of our songs and the clamors of the audience? I know that then the images will come to them from these beautiful moments of oval life.
In this book, you talk about old-fashioned rugby through multiple stories, what do you think about the evolution of rugby?
The look of an old rugby player, not worn, but nostalgic for an oval youth that will not return. It remains in my heart, as do the friends with whom and against whom I played, as do those I helped find their way through this fabulous sport.
So in front of the TV or at the stadium I watch the games like a naïve, like a child who supports “his” players. The France team is spoiling us right now, I’m savoring.
New projects in mind?
I am, like your paintings, always in motion. So, yes!
Interview from Editions PASSIFLORE
Could you please introduce Passiflora, your publishing house?
In addition to the play on the first syllable of the first name of the founders of the house, “passionflower” refers to the climbing plant of the same name that gives the fruit of passion and is known for its soothing virtues. Passionate, tenacious, persevering and driven by the pacifying values they defend, Passiflore Editions cultivates their authenticity and forges bonds of complicity with the authors, ambassadors of the house.
Editions PASSIFLORE
93 Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Avenue
40100 Dax
What is the role of a publishing house?
A publishing house is one of the links in the book chain. She shapes the “book-object” to carry it as far as possible and make it appreciated by as many readers as possible.
How does Passiflore Editions differ from its fellow publishers?
Their publications are organized around two axes: contemporary literature, with novels and authors “coup de coeur” and South-West culture, with books on art, sport and bullfighting. Passiflore Editions pays great attention to the proofreading, distribution and distribution of works all printed in France. They strive to develop relationships of trust with all actors in the book chain. Recognized nationally by literary awards, they have published to date dozens of novels and collections of short stories. Three of them have been reissued in paperback by Folio.
Passiflore regularly offers new products, how do you choose the new books added to your catalog?
We select texts whose interest we recognize.
What do you think are the recipes and ingredients of a successful book?
I’d like to know them… But by being demanding, in the long run, we are recognized by our public who knows that they will find a certain quality in our books so it is a “snowball” effect.
What is your connection to rugby?
A visceral connection. I was born in Dax, rugby town… I may have seen my first game before I knew how to walk, I don’t remember…
I also asked Serge this question: you chose with him my painting Twickenham to illustrate his new book and I thank you, why this choice to use one of my paintings rather than a photo for the cover of his new novel?
Because we really like your work that we were able to admire during an exhibition as part of the event ” le grand maul ” in Saint-Paul-lès-Dax last May.
What do you think of the association between sport, art and literature?
It is a winning trifecta. All three are carriers of a lot of emotion, which is the salt of existence. So by associating them, these three arts complement and enrich each other.
What do you think of my artistic work?
We appreciate it very much, especially in the expression of movement. Thank you for agreeing to assign us the rights to illustrate the cover of Serge Collinet’s book.
The bonus of the article
A few years ago I met Emile Ntamack at the Maubourguet meetings, an artistic and sporting event organized in the Hautes-Pyrénées. During the night of looks, under the watchful eye of the public, artists and athletes share their vision of the world and support a humanitarian project.
A very good moment that was an opportunity to meet, share and make up a little, this illustrious Toulouse with acrylic paint, well helped it must be said by the volunteers of the organizing team.
The list of values is as long as a well-documented bibliography, however I will summarize it in a universal vector of integration, a model of combativeness, courage, fraternity. These values, dear to Serge, are the link between the qualities and individual values put at the service of a collective, the indisputable key to success in this sport.
I had the chance to travel to countries where rugby is a religion, in New Zealand, Australia or the United Kingdom where it was born, the deep values of rugby are universal. All rugby clubs contain anecdotes sometimes chivalrous, sometimes crazy, stories of fraternity, sporting epics that go far beyond sport, they are inscribed in the DNA of these clubs and are transmitted from generation to generation as a legacy to perpetuate. I’m talking about this rugby where battles and bloodshed seal indestructible and eternal friendships. As the videographer Christophe Vindis will say, a Freemasonry where the price to pay to integrate this caste is courage, perseverance, solidarity and friendship.