Gillham keen to put Brive back on the rugby radar

THERE are plenty of lazy comparisons to draw between Brive and Munster — both former European champions keen to restore former glories, and both call small, rugby-mad provincial centres home — but what’s less obvious is that the French side found inspiration in Limerick not so long ago.

Summer 2008 saw the club from the Limousin region embark on a massive spending spree as they rounded up a massive foreign legion, which included England’s Ben Cohen and Andy Goode, Barry Davies of Wales and Davit Khinchagishvili from Georgia.

Amid much “it’ll never work” gnashing of teeth in the French press, Brive proceeded to lose their first five Top 14 games. But they turned it around to eventually claim Heineken Cup qualification, a pre-season goal set out during a three-day stay in Limerick.

That visit to Ireland helped unite a panel who were all bringing different cultures and languages to the table, according to Brive’s English managing director, Simon Gillham.

An OBE awardee, Gillham does not take a wage for his duties with Brive. That presumably gave him greater moral clout when it comes to encouraging Brive’s band of brothers to bond, or as he put it: “Pulling people together who were programmed to hate each other”.

Compulsory French lessons for the foreigners saw to that, while there are voluntary English classes for the locals. In 2009, he recounted a tale from a game against Biarritz where the starting pack contained just a sole Frenchman and seven English speakers.!

“They want that Brive identity, they have all bought into it,” said Gillham. “And they are terribly jealous. The players give me such s**t when they hear on the grapevine that we might be recruiting such and such a player. They all get on to me saying ‘Make sure he buys into it, we don’t want any mercenaries here’.”

With Gillham once again leading Brive into the transfer market in summer 2009, the rains of criticism came again. This time, it was the English press having a pop, as the announcement of Riki Flutey’s defection to Brive and Stade Francais’ signings of James Haskell and Tom Palmer came simultaneously.

Gillham fumed at the suggestion that Flutey’s move to Brive would signal the death knell for his England career. The Lions man’s injury problems did that for him in any case, but Gillham was talking from a position of strength, pointing out that Andy Goode couldn’t get a look-in with England while with Leicester Tigers but had flourished at Brive, earning a return to the English setup.

Interestingly, Tigers coach Richard Cockerill, in suggesting that defections to France’s moneybags clubs may be a fad, recently turned that logic on its head. He pointed to the cases of Julien Dupuy and Benjamin Kayser, two French players whose international stock was low when they arrived, but rose significantly during their time in England and dipped again after their departure.

Cockerill also asserted that Brive “have some issues” regarding their effectiveness in the transfer market; worryingly, the infamous Direction Nationale d’Aide et de Controle de Gestion (DNACG), the French financial watchdog, were sniffing around the club earlier this season, wondering why it has dipped into its reserve funds.

While Gillham had predicted the influx of foreign players would slow to a trickle as Brive’s concerns turned to boosting their home-grown ranks, these days he has to firefight on different fronts.

Despite much talk of five-year plans and becoming a Top 14 force, Les Corrazes have struggled to shake the term “crisis club” over the past 12 months.

The rot began in late 2009 when manager Laurent Seigne and honorary president Patrick Sebastian left within a week of each other. Just over a year later, forwards coach Christophe Laussucq was axed, and days later head coach Ugo Mola offered his resignation unless he was assured of the confidence of the players.

The club asserted this to be the case but French media reports suggested the opposite was true, with the players reportedly voting by an “overwhelming majority” to see a change of coach, only for Gillham to ignore their pleas.

Gillham recently admitted he has no “magic bullet” to solve the relegation-threatened club’s problems, while Mola’s assertion that his side are “in a hurry” to secure their Top 14 status could be interpreted as also describing the mindset of a man who figures he won’t be in Limousin one way or another next term.

Former Biarritz coach Jacques Delmas is mooted as a possible replacement, but whoever is at the helm will have to plan without a number of stars — French international backs Alexis Palisson (Toulon) and Fabrice Estebanez (Racing Metro) are both heading for the exit door, as is Worcester-bound scrum-half Shaun Perry.

Munster’s visit to this sleepy, yet volatile, rugby town will surely remind Gillham and Brive of brighter days. But the hosts have proven they can triumph during the darker ones too — cite the victory over Sale in a twice-delayed fixture Galashiels earlier this season.

Given their behind-the-scenes woes, they will surely welcome another European distraction.