TotalEnergies organizes its international rugby tournament in Pau
- TotalEnergies is an official sponsor of the Rugby World Cup 2023 France and has been a major partner of the Section Paloise for over 30 years now.
- Personnel from all around the world came to spend two days in the Béarn region to meet up and share the values of rugby.
- The Pau Site reached the finals with its team: "Lous Valents".
The TotalEnergies Pau Site is one of the Company’s major sites – it has two first-rate multi-energy centers of technological excellence: the Jean Féger Scientific and Technical Center, the CSTJF, and the Platform for Experimental Research in Lacq, the PERL. It represents our multi-energy Company in the Béarn region, where the Top14 rugby club, the Section Paloise Béarn Pyrénées has had a privileged place in TotalEnergies’ sponsoring strategy in France since 1988. By lending its support to rugby, TotalEnergies affirms its passion for a popular sport that represents the identity of Southwest France. So when the project for the Rugby World Touch tournament was initiated to celebrate the partnership with the World Cup 2023 France, the Stade du Hameau was a natural choice of venue.
On June 16-17, over two days, 24 mixed teams (gender diversity was mandatory) came to compete from all around the world: Angola, Belgium, France, Nigeria, Qatar, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Uganda! The 300 or so women and men who had come to play as part of a team or participate as volunteers, were able to visit the city of Pau by taking part in a rally, and also have fun together to get to know one another at evening events where they were able to meet prominent figures such as Jerome Garcès, an international referee, and François Bayrou, Mayor of Pau.
Louna Magere, a cost controller in training (work-study contract) decided to volunteer to help with the tournament. During the preparation time and for the actual tournament, she became the Team Manager for the team from the Pau Site sponsored by Thierry Renard: "Lous Valents" or "The plucky players" in Gascon. "The tournament was a very enriching experience, from creating the rugby shirts to following my team on the day; I supported them in all the different phases of the challenge," she explains. "It required preparation upstream.
The players I coached followed a pretty strict training plan: one session per week based on physical condition to reduce the risk of injury and reinforce cohesion and team spirit. Our main aim was just to play rugby, enjoy ourselves and of course to do the best we could." And the Pau Site team more than achieved their aim by reaching the finals against the Swiss employees of the "Geneva Jets" team, who dug deep to win the trophy.
As Namita Shah, a member of the TotalEnergies Board of Directors and sponsor of the tournament, declared: "The Béarnais demonstrated just how welcoming they are!" "As hosts of this amazing competition, we gave the Geneva Jets the chance to climb to the top of the podium..." jokes Thierry Renard, Director of the TotalEnergies site in Pau. "We are very proud to have run the first international rugby tournament here in Pau. The event requires specific logistics that ran like clockwork. It was an opportunity to promote the values shared by the world of rugby and our Company: strength in solidarity, team spirit, kindliness and perseverance. It’s a wonderful way to put our partnership with the organization of France 2023 in the spotlight, and to valorize the worldwide, popular event that the Rugby World Cup in France is destined to be," he concludes.