Beziers’ heroes get warm welcome in wee hours

Brendan Gallagher delves into some of rugby’s most enduring images, their story and why they are still so impactful

What’s happening here?

It’s nearly 1am on the morning of Monday May 17, 1971 at Gare de Beziers down in the eastern corner of south west France. On Sunday afternoon the town’s rugby team had claimed a sensational 15-9 victory against Toulon 200 odd miles away in Bordeaux to take the French Championship and now the conquering heroes are back. Many supporters need to be at work in a few hours’ time but sleep is not an option.

What is the story behind the picture?

A dramatic, controversial but oh so sweet victory for Beziers which established them as a major force in the French game. Beziers had started to flex their muscles in the 60s with one title in 1961 but the feeling persisted that their brilliant team was under performing. Their demanding fans wanted more. In 1968 Raol Barriere, a star player when they won in 1961, was appointed coach and suddenly they adopted a much more ruthless forward-oriented approach although they still had one or two mesmerising backs.

The year 1971 was when potential converted into results. Their brutal pack bulldozed their way to the final and the game in Bordeaux is remembered as one of the most torrid of all time up front but they had two backs in particular who could light up any match. They were Jack Cantoni and Rene Seguier – possibly the best French players you have never heard of.

With the clock ticking down to full time and Bezier trailing 9-6, the mercurial Cantoni, running back to his own line in the style of Phil Bennett, counter-attacked. As he bore away on an outside arc and sidestepped wouldbe tacklers, he was then atomised by an extraordinarily violent straight arm to the throat from Toulon centre Richard Fabien.

Cantoni however still managed to pass to Seguier who was traveling at full speed with 50 metres to go. Seguier, perennially the top try scorer in French club rugby, still had three defenders to beat but his speed and trickery of foot was unstoppable and he produced a very modern jacknife dive into the corner to complete the job.

Beziers couldn’t convert but having earned a last minute reprieve all the momentum was with them and they scored two more tries in extra time to complete the 15-9 victory.

What happened next?

Total domination for Beziers in the 70s and early 80s. Beziers were Pontypool x 2 and they endured the same reputation of being a brutal winning machine, no matter that on a fairly regular basis they also produced rugby from the gods.

Between 1971 and 1984 they won ten French club championships and appeared in one other final. Their savage, mean pack struck fear into allcomers and French club rugby in the 70s was hardly a place for shrinking violets to start with.

There was man-mountain Alain Esteve, a massive athlete and extremely tough cookie, fellow lock Georges Senal who may have won only six caps but was a noted enforcer before Michel Palmie took over that role, superb flanker Olivier Saisset and legendary wild man prop Armand Vanquerin who killed himself in a Bezier bar playing Russian roulette.

No.8 Jean Pierre Pastelli never knowingly took a backward step and hooker Alain Paco was a one-man army. Yvan Buonomo was another France cap in the back row who couldn’t disrupt the national Jean Pierre Rives-Jean Claude Skrela axis but was a hell of a performer and multi-championship winner. At scrum-half you had the astute Richard Astre and then the extravagant gifts of Cantoni and Seguier. It was an almost irresistible combination.

Why is this picture iconic?

This for many decades – before the emergence of big city super clubs – was what French club rugby was all about. Small far-flung towns who invested all their emotional energy and spare cash in their beloved rugby club. Local heroes who proudly flew the civic flag.

The late night excitement is tangible; you can hear the guards’ frantic whistles and the shouts of victory and homecoming. Another 20,000 fans are gathered in the Boulevard de Verdun just outside the station and the party has been underway since the final whistle.

The teams almost always travelled by train both locally and to more remote teams up in Paris along the west coast to places like Biarritz, Bayonne and Bordeaux or in the centre of France such as Brive, Grenoble and Montferrand that was – now Clermont. French rugby revolved around France’s brilliant SNCF system which criss-crossed the nation and made day trips possible. And it still serves that purpose if you want. I covered the 2007 World Cup almost entirely by train.

France is a big nation, twice the size of Britain and with mountain ranges making the infrastructure difficult but it was SNCF that made the French Championship possible.

And on big match weekends the stations came alive with the travelling throng. The station bars and cafes became impromptu clubhouses, places of celebration and commiseration.

Footnote. Nothing is forever. Since their last win in 1984, Beziers have not appeared in a final.