“Rugby is the story of a ball with friends around and when there is no more ball, there are friends left,” said Jean-Pierre Rives, renowned player and founder of the French Barbarians. This idea is widely shared by Serge Blanco as he explains in “The Giants of Rugby”, a Europe 1 Studio podcast.
During the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, the French XV had just won a semi-final against Australia at home in Sydney. A scenario in which few people believed, the Blues having not beaten the Australian team for more than 25 years. And yet that day, Serge Blanco said: “I felt a lot of strength, a lot of energy being released. I felt pushed by others.”
Always teammates
Pushed by teammates with whom he has played since his debut, such as scrum half Pierre Berbizier. Also pushed by the supporters who come from the four corners of the world to watch the final stages and who invade the pitch after the final whistle. This World Cup, for Blanco, is a story that goes far beyond the limits of a rugby field: “these are human adventures, this group, after the semi-final, is an exceptional group”.
“We made sure that these moments remained unforgettable,” explains Serge Blanco. The moments he remembers from this first World Cup in 1987 take place outside the matches. These are the Basque songs sung by the French players on the evening of their victory in the semi-final. It’s Sunday lunch, in the company of the Blacks the day after the Blues’ defeat in the final. These players who have lunch together, with women and children, and who forget their disagreements and their differences. If dialogue is not appropriate because of the language barrier, gestures and looks are enough.
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Serge Blanco saw his World Cup victory even before the final kicked off. Gathered together under the goal, Jacques Fouroux’s men, as united in victory as in defeat, confide in each other, sharing their daily pains. “It’s the most beautiful thing we shared in this final, even if we lost,” testifies Serge Blanco.
Proud of the progress he has made, he regrets nothing about this 1987 World Cup and it is this journey, full of emotions, that he tells us about in The Giants of Rugby, an original podcast produced by Europe 1 Studio.