Five players from the French XV – Charles Ollivon, Damian Penaud, Matthieu Jalibert, and Uini Atonio and Gaël Fickou, accompanied by general manager Raphaël Ibanez – visited this Friday people with disabilities exercising a professional activity at ESAT Château workshop in Rueil-Malmaison. Before a session of Polaroid photos and autographs, the Blues took part in a ten-minute question session from their hosts. In complete relaxation, “Lesencontres du Papotin” style.
At the Gaël Fickou center, for example, this question was asked: “Do you have a lucky charm? If you don’t have one, I’m willing to be.” Player response: “If you want to be, with great pleasure, you come whenever you want. It also depends on each person. Everyone has their own rituals. I have the same under-shorts that I wear for every match…” To the pillar Uini Atonio, who was asked if the Blues were going to win the World Cup, the Rochelais did not shirk: ” Yes, I think, yes”
A moment of relaxation particularly appreciated by Gaël Fickou as he confided at the end of these 40 minutes of visit: “It’s always a pleasure to be able to share moments like that, it’s never easy for them. So being able to meet them and chat with them, take photos, I think they enjoy it. It’s positive, it’s nice. It also allows us to disconnect, to see something else. It’s true that we only think about rugby. It allows us to meet our fans. They’re everywhere so it’s always nice. These are people who have disabilities and who played rugby all week I think and they watched the match. I think they’re starting to like rugby so it’s nice to see them. It’s important to share moments like that with people in difficulty and I think it does them good and allows them to escape too.”
Before adding, laughing: “And they asked very good questions, sometimes better than those of the journalists. Frankly, two or three questions were more specific than yours… I’m joking, I’m teasing…”
