Rugger Girls: Part 7. 1980s - End of the breach

1980s: END OF THE BREACH

Seventh chapter of the summary of the history of women's rugby, from the book "Rugger Girls"("Des Filles en Ovalie"), written by Jacques B. Corti and Yaneth Pinilla Foreword by Serge Betsen. Published weekly(ish) by French women's rugby blog Des Filles en Ovalie.

In the early 80's women's rugby saw a real upheaval. Everything changed: the players, the officials, and even communication. At Bourg, Henry Fléchon saw a new player: Viviane Berodia, who quickly became known as 'Bero.' "Some girls told me to come play", she says, "but my father did not". 'Béro' ignored this . She played at fly or full-back while working for the post office. "I worked shifts and part-time." Henry Fléchon asked her to edit the ARAF's bulletin.

Her work on the bulletin proved daunting. For a period she even designed the page layouts. "Bero" kept collections of letter and characters cut from various publications in envelopes to use to compose texts and titles. And she put all together on the page.

Henry Fléchon was delighted. It must be said that his motto was always: "we need to include all the girls and talk about them. "

At ease with her role, Viviane Berodia, was not likely to be silent on the field.

The first coach she knew was Claude Izoard. "Bourg-en-Breese was then known for the strength of its game, because of the strength of its coach. At the time it was: 'we must not ask questions'. But girls like to ask questions... Playing and training went from one extreme to another - in winter it was a real test, but in the  spring, too. There were sometimes awkward situations where the ball disappeared under the 5 inches of grass on the field..."

Next time: 1980s: AFRF AND FFR: FACE TO FACE