We’ve reached halfway in the ProD2 season and things are looking good for FCG. After a bit of a dodgy start, the team is now sitting in third place in the table, part of a group of five teams in the play-off places that has slowly but consistently pulled away from the chasing pack.
A lot of this has been due to a recent winning sequence that has not been especially emphatic but has been very effective, including a battling home win over clear leaders Albi and a couple of narrow but deserved away victories, something that has been rare for FCG over recent years. The try count is the best in the division and although the kicking has been somewhat inconsistent (with seven kicks missed in the 21-13 win over Pau, for example, a game that should have been sealed after an hour instead of needing a 77th minute try to finish), the points have kept coming. A place in the play-offs is surely now a realistic ambition.
The key question, however, is whether promotion would actually be in the best interests of the club. To be honest, the standard of the Top14 scares me when I compare it to ProD2 and promotion could be a poisoned chalice that ends up seriously damaging the club. As a fan of Grenoble sport, it’s hard not to be marked by the recent events at GF38, where promotion to the top flight was achieved but the lack of infrastructure and the massive costs connected with being competitive proved to be catastrophic. And the prospects for teams climbing into the Top14 are far from cheerful, too. Albi have bounced between the divisions in recent seasons and there are clubs for whom the effort required to stay up and stay solvent have proved too much – here we can mention Montauban and Béziers. Realistically, if FCG did go up, they’d have to spend a lot on recruitment and then hope that at least one other club experienced major financial difficulties during the season, filling thus at least one of the relegation spots.
Is it a sign of a lack of ambition not to be completely enthusiastic about a tilt for promotion? I don’t know. The sporting side of me would love to see FCG back in the top flight, hosting the big sides and maybe getting a few good European games, but I can also remember the season spent in Fed 1 after the financial crisis a few years ago, and so solidity in ProD2 with a few rousing wins doesn’t seem to be such a bad idea.