Linda Djougang's inside track on French: 'I built my core skills there'
GREEN WAVE: Ireland's Linda Djougang in action against Italy. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Linda Djougang is going back to Clermont and she couldn’t be happier.
It’s four years since the IRFU brokered a deal that allowed for Ireland’s young but promising tighthead prop to spend a season in the Massif-Central with ASM Romagnat, the local club affiliated with Clermont-Auvergne.
She was 25, with just a dozen caps to her name. Now she is returning with her national side having passed the 50-cap mark at last year’s World Cup and ready to face France at the superbly-atmospheric Stade Marcel Michelin.
It feels like a homecoming.
“It is. I'm really happy to go back. I never really thought that we would have the opportunity, not just playing as a club there, but also coming back with the green jersey and playing in Stade Michelin.
“It's an amazing stadium. Clermont is known for the rugby. It is a rugby town. They know their passion, so it's gonna be a nice challenge for us because there's no [better] place to play than in that pitch.”
It’s no surprise that the town and the club suited. French was her first language growing up in Cameroon so there was no linguistic barrier and, as a qualified nurse, she seemed a good fit for a club founded by physiotherapist students back in the 1970s.
Djougang returned to Ireland after her year on the continent and has since established herself as the cornerstone of the Irish scrum through good times and bad and, truth be told, a few coaches too many. She credits Clermont for a lot of that.
“Oh, massively. I feel like I built my core skills there, especially in the scrum, because when I went I was really just breaking through into the Irish system. It was after the World qualifier in Italy [which they lost] that I went there.
“For me, it was really to just be like [learning] with scrummaging. I’m still learning, I'm such a young prop, too.
If that was the bread and butter over there then Djougang loved the ‘joué’ side of it too. It took time for her to reacclimatise to the more structured Irish approach when that season was over, but it’s that structure that they will lean on this weekend.
Djougang was holding down a day job as a nurse in Tallaght before that interval in France. She is working with Medserv, a medical billing company, now having given up a central IRFU contract after last year’s World Cup.
Unlike their male counterparts, the top female players don’t have contracts that stretch into six-figure sums so, having finished a Masters in sports management last summer, Djougang has chosen to follow a twin-tracked approach.
“There's so many different aspects of me, not just as a rugby player. It's good to even look at the future.
That openness was evident before now with a short stint in the Cayman Islands working as a rugby development coach and, more recently, as a sports development and outreach officer with Trinity College in Dublin.
The current balance is possible thanks to an employer that has supported her needs as they change through the season. She played through the whole Celtic Challenge campaign, and the Six Nations obviously takes up a major chunk of her time.
Every team has their mantras these days. Scott Bemand’s is no different.
Talk of the ‘green wave’ has been constant over the last year and their aim for this season has been laid plain on the table. Ireland want to break into the top two in the Six Nations and the top four in the world with it.
Beating France, second to England in this tournament the last five years, is the key to unlocking both achievements. That’s the wide-angled view. Djougang’s focus is more micro in Clermont, starting with those scrums.
“The French, they're known for their scrum. Even from playing in France, it's a big factor. The scrum is going to be massive for us going into Saturday. It's a massive target. The last time we played against them, we were ahead at the scrum.
“So it's a big work-on and we've been working really hard to get back into that connection, and just get back into our own setpieces. It's going to be a tough game. They want to scrum, but I feel like we've prepared very well.”
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