Credit: Rugby Club Esch
Chronicle.lu recently had the opportunity to speak with Rodrigo Esteves, Sports Director at Rugby Club Esch (RCE), about upcoming projects for the 2024/25 season, as well as how the club - officially registered at the Luxembourg Rugby Federation (FLR) since July 2023 - has grown over the past year.
New projects include a collaboration with the University of Luxembourg (Uni.lu) and a new rugby school "in the making" (U4 to U12).
Chronicle.lu: What are your main goals for Rugby Club Esch - Les Furets this season? How does the team plan to build on last season's performance and progress?
Rodrigo Esteves: The main goal is to develop the team on its rugby skills. We have a very young team with many players that are discovering rugby for the first time, [the] more we are, [the] more we can develop. The project to form a senior rugby team was meant to be achieved in five years' time - we did it in one year, so now we have to deal with the exponential growing and try to make the best out of it.
The Senior XV team is schedule to have their first training on Tuesday 17 September 2024 at 19:30. Everyone free to join us and can contact us at info@rcelesfurets.com.
Through the season, we will have some common trainings and friendly games with close by teams similar to last season, so we can partner up to complement each other. We are investing in a new material, training gear to reinforce our training sessions and we expect to have our rugby posts installed on our match pitch in the next couple months. This will allow us to train all aspects of the rugby game.
We had as well the opportunity to integrate the newly made Rheinland Pfalz league to give us an extra boost in terms of competitiveness. This will allow our players to have more playing time, develop their skills, analyse where we can improve, and that’s already a good starting point. We started last Saturday 31 August with a Tournament in Worms, Germany as pre-season test match. Great Atmosphere.
Ultimately, we will stick to our international tournaments that [are] now a “Furets tradition”. We expect to join Groningen 10s tournament in May 2025 and the Flanders Open 10s in June 2025. Last season, it was a great experience for all the team.
Chronicle.lu: Please share more about the collaboration with the University of Luxembourg. What are the main objectives of this partnership?
Rodrigo Esteves: At the end of the last season, on one of our meetings, we brought this subject to the table - Uni.lu is just our neighbour (Belval Campus), they have literally thousands of people between staff, academic professional, students… why not seek a partnership? So we did it, we offered the possibility to the academic community to experience rugby with Rugby Club Esch.
Now through the Uni.lu sports programme, it’s possible to book sessions to be part of Les Furets trainings. With this partnership we also hope that the academic community or part of it gets in love with rugby and RCE to ultimately become a long-lasting member of our club.
Chronicle.lu: Are there any other partnerships or sponsorships that the club is excited about?
Rodrigo Esteves: Over the last season, we have worked with the Esch community to secure important partnerships that would benefit both the team and the local businesses. A good example of these partnerships is that we have acquired all of our match gear with the support of our sponsors. This equipment will be put to a test during this season during our friendly matches and tournaments. We are now working to get our training gear and equipment in the next couple weeks. We work continuously to develop more local partnerships with local partners.
Chronicle.lu: How will the new rugby school differ from previous youth programmes?
Rodrigo Esteves: This is a project that we are currently developing. It is scheduled to start on Saturday 21 September at 10:30 at our training ground in Hiehl, Esch. It is directed [at] children from four to twelve years old, male and female, mixed teams. All information is currently available on our website and everyone can easily reach us at ecole@rcelesfurets.com.
The objective is to form these young boys and girls with values known to rugby academies all over the world. This will help them to be better sportsmen/sportswomen and human beings inside and outside the pitch.
The big advantage of our rugby school it is its strategic location, South Luxembourg, as well close to France. We know there is demand and we will offer this opportunity to those who might want it. We can share that we have already a nice group of children standing by to make their debut on 21 September 2024. We hope that over the next weeks with the starting school year more will join the Little Ferrets.
Last season, RCE was invited by the FLR to organise one event, the Lux League. It is under discussion that RCE will once more organise a Lux League event in 2025 (dates TBC).
Chronicle.lu: What are the long-term plans for the rugby club beyond this season?
Rodrigo Esteves: Rugby Club Esch is here to stay. The plan is to establish a club that can be sustainable in a long run - this means that in some years some of our players will be too old to integrate certain competitions, however their participation is not over, there will be an administrative structure to continuously support.
We intend to create a structure that allow new generations to come and play for Rugby Club Esch like their dads/mums did in the past and have that same pride similar to any other club/sport in Luxembourg.
On the sports side, we intend to start forming rugby trainers for the different levels and ages. Eventually a woman team will be something to discuss - Les Furettes. Referees are also an important part of the game, so we might think [in the] long run to integrate Les Furets members who might want to be on the referring side as well.
