Passion behind Brive's regeneration

RUGBY: GAVIN CUMMISKEYtalks to Englishman Simon Gillham, Brive chief executive, who works for free but puts his own money into the club

MUNSTER MAY not be the main story over this massive weekend for Irish rugby but they remain a story nonetheless. It was the stroke of midnight on Thursday when the Brive chief executive Simon Gillham OBE and The Irish Times finally managed to make contact. Gillham was in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at a conference regarding his other business interests as a senior executive vice-president of Vivendi – the French international media conglomerate.

But the Englishman refuses to pass up an opportunity to promote the French rugby club he purchased, along with “nine mates” in April 2009. The really successful French sides tend to have a sugar daddy. Daniel Derichebourg was Brive’s until other demands forced him to sell.

Suddenly Brive – also noted for its Anglo-French make-up on the field – stagnated. Riki Flutey, Steve Thompson and Andy Goode have since departed although scrumhalf Shaun Perry and centre Jamie Noon, along with a couple of South Africans, remained.

Gillham was approached by “my good friend”, Derichbourg, to buy him out. He now owns “around 25 per cent”. The other nine owners are a collection of local businessmen, a few Parisian colleagues of Gillham and three other Brits – one Scot and two English. Gillham takes no salary.

“Not only do I work for free but I put my own money into it. It is a passion. For fun, although it is not always that much fun but thankfully we have a great staff at the club.”

The club is part of the fabric of Brive, commanding 12,000-15,000 crowds for home matches. “With a population of 55,000 that is one in four people coming to see the team every week. Next year, if we stay up, and I am confident we will, Brive will be the smallest ‘town’ in the Top 14.”

The locals take great pride in this.

With relegation fears allayed by the 26-9 defeat of La Rochelle, the Red Army can be welcomed with open arms this weekend. But are they coming? “There is not a spare room in a 30-mile radius of the town,” said Gillham. “The main streets have been pedestrianised on Saturday so people can enjoy the day and night.”

Brive can almost be described as a sleeping giant of French rugby. They cannot quite claim this title, however, as the Bouclier de Brennus has eluded their grasp on four occasions in a 101-year history – narrowly losing four national finals, first in 1965, twice in the 1970s to Beziers and in 1996 against the mighty Toulouse.

And yet, they have achieved greatness in Northern Hemisphere rugby by winning the Heineken Cup in 1997, when they beat the Leicester Tigers 28-9, only surrendering their title to Bath, 19-18, in the final 12 months later.

With a home semi-final to follow against the winners of Harlequins and Wasps, these memories must be fresh in the mind. “No,” Gillham interjects. “The Top 14 is the most important thing to us. We went from being a rich French club to being a modest French club but we have managed to rebuild on regional roots and national sponsorship. In the past two years we have cut the budget by 30 per cent.”

But surely a businessman can see through his passion to the dividend at the end of the Amlin Challenge Cup adventure? “The Amlin Cup has been a bonus. It was not our objective at the start of the season. When we won at home to Sale we did say, well, if we can beat them away then there was the chance of going to the quarter-finals.

“Then we got a home draw against one of the most prestigious clubs in Europe. It is very flattering for our little club to be welcoming a team like Munster and their marvellous supporters to our town but we know the Heineken Cup is still a long way away.”

Brive cannot compete with the riches of Racing Metro or Toulon, who recently signed their best home-grown player Alexis Pallisson (the locals would not have been too please to see Jerry Flannery take the field today after his flying hack on their beloved try scorer during last year’s Six Nations).

They have a motto of late, “Brive: un éleveur of talent.” – the talent breeding club.

“Alexis is a great example. He is 23 now and came through our ranks. Toulon made him an incredible offer. We had already offered him a 40 per cent increase of his salary but Toulon came along and increased our offer by 50 per cent! He came to me and asked what can the club do to keep him and I told him it was a fantastic offer from Toulon and that rugby is a short career. There is no point bitching about it.”

So, today is a welcome novelty yet retaining Top 14 status is everything? “No,” again Gillham talks of something deeper. “We are not going to cry about it if we went down to the second division this year or next. And we would not walk away from it either. The club has been here for 100 years and will still be here in another 100, when we will all be mere footnotes in its proud history. That’s the way it has always been.

“I say it to the supporters: there are far more important things in life. It is not death if we go down. This is rugby.”