Seven years after equally shambolic performances on the pitch and in the boardroom left the proud but wounded FC Grenoble facing life in Fed 1, the third tier of French rugby, the club has risen from its ashes and claimed a place back in the elite.\u00a0 It has been long and bumpy road.\u00a0 Crucially for the club’s survival, promotion from Fed 1 to ProD2 was achieved after only one year in the amateur leagues, with the consequent impact on the club’s budgeting and ability to draw on resources.\u00a0 That season was tough and culminated in an epic play-off victory, 32-25 against Nimes at Valence, to claim the third and final promotion slot.\u00a0 One single try made all the difference.<\/p>\n
Life in ProD2 proved to be tough and the team struggled to make an impact, especially as the revolving door to the top flight meant that each season there were plenty of clubs in the division with recent experience at the highest level and budgets that reflected that.<\/p>\n
The masterstroke came in 2009 with the appointment of Fabrice Landreau as directeur sportif<\/em>.\u00a0 This former player brought to the club his international experience (4 caps for France) and his managerial experience of five seasons coaching the forwards at Stade Fran\u00e7ais.\u00a0 His target was to get FCG promoted within five years.<\/p>\n In the end he needed only three.\u00a0 In 2010 FCG finished sixth, level on points with Pau and missing out on the playoffs because of their head-to-head record.\u00a0 In 2011 FCG only missed out on automatic promotion by two points but improbably lost at home to Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles in the play-off semi-final.\u00a0 2012 would be different, though.\u00a0 After a slightly slow start to the season, the club embarked on an efficient charge towards the title, sealing promotion four weeks before the end of the season and scoring more than 700 points along the way.<\/p>\n A key factor in the club’s rebirth must surely be the spirit of continuity and belonging.\u00a0 Landreau’s two managerial colleagues also have long attachments to the club: Franck Corrihons was the multi-talented back (scrum half, winger or full-back, as needed) whose performances consistently lit up the Stade Lesdigu\u00e8res even during the darkest days and who enjoyed a particular moment of glory in scoring all twenty of FCG’s points as they defeated Northampton 20-18 in November 1999, the only defeat Northampton suffered on their way to the Heineken Cup that season.\u00a0 After the relegation to Fed 1, he stayed on as manager and set the club on the right path.\u00a0 Joining him in 2006 and there ever since as forwards coach has been former hooker Sylvain Begon, another link to the club’s European adventures in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n So what does the future hold?\u00a0 No-one is under any illusions that survival is going to be the sole objective for 2012-13.\u00a0 For the last three years Lesdigu\u00e8res has been a fortress with many visiting teams expecting to be on the receiving end of a hammering, and so FCG have been able to target picking up additional points on their travels.\u00a0 Life in Top14 promises to be much tougher.<\/p>\n The core of the club will remain unchanged, though, with talk of 80% of players being retained and targeted recruitment being carried out.\u00a0 With stability, consistency and an adequate budget, the club should be able to consolidate its position back amongst the big names of French rugby and play its part in making the south-east of the country the powerhouse of rugby that its size, traditions and resources demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seven years after equally shambolic performances on the pitch and in the boardroom left the proud but wounded FC Grenoble facing life in Fed 1, the third tier of French rugby, the club has risen from its ashes and claimed a place back in the elite.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111,"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simms.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}