On December 9, 2018, the life of the Chauvin family turned upside down. That day, Nicolas (18), 3rd line of the Stade Français, was the victim of a destructive double tackle during a match in the France Espoirs championship, on the lawn of Union Bordeaux-Bègles. In a coma after a tearing of the second cervical vertebra resulting in a spinal cord injury, the young man died three days later at the Pellegrin hospital in Bordeaux.
More than four years after the tragedy, in Rugby Dying is part of the game (Editions du Rocher) published on Wednesday, his father Philippe delivers a worthy and enlightening testimony. This 54-year-old former amateur player then club leader tells of the broken trajectory of the youngest of his three sons, but also his fight for the responsibilities in his death to be established.
Pugnacious, Philippe Chauvin describes the many obstacles he has encountered and still encounters, while the solidarity of the world of rugby has often only lasted as long as the enormous emotion aroused by the death of Nicolas. Finally, he is campaigning for World Rugby Rule 9, Paragraph 11 or extracted from the text in which it is embedded, to be recalled everywhere. Here’s how it begins: “Players must not do anything that is reckless or dangerous to others. »
Why did you choose this title?
This is the observation that I make. I lost a son on a rugby pitch in the 5th minute of a match, following a double tackle. I did the analysis work from the action to the video. I went to see the FFR (French Rugby Federation) and the Ministry (of Sports) and they said to me: “yes”, “yes”, “yes”… But in the end, they are unable to produce an analysis report or to say that there are faults. The FFR even dared to say in September 2019 that there was none… What does that mean? It means you can die on a rugby pitch and that’s normal.
The title shocks and disturbs me as much as it can shock and disturb the reader. Rugby is a sport that I love. But we must still admit that if the authorities responsible for this game, the Ministry of Sports and the FFR, do nothing, we come to consider that we can die on a rugby pitch. It is important to say it loud and clear. There is too much communication about “the big family of rugby”, about “the school of life” and so on… There is a form of manipulation.
In the last pages, you describe your book as “Odyssey after a shipwreck”. Today, what is your state of mind and that of your family?
That is to say that we must go all the way. My objectives are very simple: the first is rule 9 paragraph 11 of World Rugby. Are you, yes or no, going to ensure that practitioners, licensees and the general public are aware of this rule? It is necessary to communicate on it very widely and that everyone understands that there are limits not to be exceeded. It is a strong pressure that I put on the ministry, with which I exchanged again in March. I was told it was in progress.
One can be surprised, when you see the power of a government, that for four years, it has not been damned to ask the FFR, within the framework of the delegation of public service, to have this little sentence written on the licenses, for a question of safety of the practitioners.
The second objective is that the circumstances of my son’s death be established (Philippe Chauvin filed a complaint against “X” for manslaughter in the fall of 2019, the investigation of which is in progress). Today, it’s as if one of your loved ones died in a road accident and you were told: “We agree but no, we won’t make a finding”. That does not make sense. I have a video, but we don’t want to see the things that are on it. It’s too easy.
You describe an obstacle course against institutions that pass the buck…
It is a headlong rush. When you had four deaths, like in 2018, action must still be taken. It is not a gesture in a world symposium in Marcoussis (organized in March 2019) that will bring something out. Besides, when you see that there was no follow-up, you realize that it was a communication element and nothing else. Very clearly, we have a ministry with absent subscribers.
What about the notion of “great rugby family”?
There is something wrong, with media complicity. We consider that rugby is a big family, that people are friendly. And then, it’s so beautiful the guard of honor at the end of the matches… It’s marvelous, it’s true, but we admit things when we expect a mastery either technical, or gestural, or behavioral by relation to the level of professionalism. And the same for leaders. These people must be there.
When you have deaths, serious accidents as we saw in 2018 and which we continued to see in 2019, 2020 and 2021, this is not normal! The ministry should demand reports, feedback from each serious accident, which leads to tetraplegia, paraplegia or death… And the concussions that will occur in series in the next ten years, we should talk about them any further.
What we see on the rugby pitches in Top 14 or in Pro D2, be sure that we will also have replicas in National, Federal and Regional, . We lowered the tackle limit, which is great. But if you don’t enforce the rules, you can announce all the rules you want, it’s no use. The FFR and the LNR have a responsibility at the level of the disciplinary committees.
Do you find that certain sentences handed down are too light?
This is also the change of attitude that we must have all of us, public, parents, family and media. When we see the percussion of Atonio on the shoulder on an Irishman, we must say that this gesture is inadmissible. I was scandalized when I saw the France – South Africa match and the action on Danty (a header from the 3rd line of the Springboks Pieter-Steph Du Toit right in the face of the tricolor center). What did he take? Three weeks ? He could have killed him! Dupont took more after a mess (four weeks for having unbalanced the South African Kolbe)… What example do we give to the players? Rugby is a sport of commitment, where there is intensity, but it is not just about fighting.
Can we talk about progress despite everything, since the death of your son?
In the Espoirs category, they did what was necessary by lowering the age category. And again, there were exceptions for two years. This time we are lucky to no longer have professionals who come to play with the Espoirs, it is still a step forward. When I hear that we’ve lowered the tackle line to amateur level, that we’ve banned two-man tackles, that we’re more observant, that’s fine, but my son wasn’t playing as an amateur, he was playing Elite.
Until we have made it clear to the class that serves as an example to the entire rugby community that we are not here to hurt the opponent and that hurting the opponent is not a strategy of game, we won’t be able to do it at lower levels who have less resources, less time to train and who ultimately do what they see on TV.
Do you feel engaged in the same fight as players with concussions who hold World Rugby and their unions to account?
Completely. I was particularly touched by the testimony of Alexandre Lapandry In Noon Olympic, at the end of last year. It is uplifting. It hurts a lot, he is an exemplary player, who did everything in Clermont. And because he was seriously concussed and we didn’t protect him enough, he finds himself in a deep depression. Is this rugby? It is not a posteriori that we must protect the players, but by applying the rules.
Look at the forks, we slowly realized that this was not normal. Now you hardly see any. The rules, if you don’t apply them, it’s useless. And if you do not sanction and that in the disciplinary committee, you endorse bogus excuses with repeat offenders, it is the pinnacle.