The team that will play 'Els Segadors' in the heart of Paris

BarcelonaOn June 6th, 'Els segadors' will sound in the heart of Paris. To understand how we got here, we need to pull a thread that takes us back to the years of the Civil War in l'Espluga de Francolí. Josep Guasch, a member of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya who had held a position in the mayor's office, fled to France, where he ended up in the Argelès prisoner-of-war camp, suffering hardships on the sand of this beach where so many Republicans were interned. A few years later, his wife and children joined him, and they put down roots in Perpignan. Josep worked as a farmer, as he had done in Conca de Barberà. And one of his sons, also named Josep, would stand out as a rugby player with both USAP de Perpignan and the XIII Catalan, a team that played a thirteen-a-side rugby variant, a version of this sport in which fifteen players are not involved. They say that when the XIII Catalan negotiated his signing, Josep told them he had a job in a butcher's shop and wasn't sure if he could train. The club, therefore, bought the butcher's shop and gave it to him. As the owner, he could then train and play as he pleased.

This is how the story begins, which leads us to the Dracs Catalans of Perpignan, one of the best thirteen-a-side rugby teams on the continent. Who is the club's president? Bernard Guasch, Josep's son and the mayor's grandson. A man who, before every match in Perpignan, plays 'Els segadors' at the stadium. This year, the Dracs are celebrating their first twenty years of existence in top form. A club that is the heir to the XIII Catalan, founded in 1934, and AS Saint-Estève, from 1965, which merged to create the Dracs Catalans. The person responsible was Bernard Guasch, who also played rugby at a good level and presides over one of the largest commercial groups in the meat sector in the Perpignan area. An empire with its roots in that butcher's shop owned by his father. It was he who pushed for the merger to have a competitive club in this more dynamic variant of rugby than the traditional one. A discipline with a long tradition in England and the south of France. South of the Pyrenees, thirteen-a-side rugby is little known, but in the north, one of the best European clubs is Catalan.

Twenty years ago, the Dragons entered the professional Rugby League Super League. A competition born in the United Kingdom in the nineties in which the Catalans have achieved good results. A league considered the second most powerful in the world, only behind the Australian one. The idea of the tournament creators was to include French clubs, but only the Dragons have competed regularly outside the islands. In 2006, the coach at the time was the Australian Mike Potter, who raised the level of a team that has been runner-up twice and won the Challenge Cup once at Wembley Stadium in 2018. Now the Catalans continue to aspire to everything. And to celebrate their first twenty years of life, they will play this coming June 6 in Paris against the Wigan Warriors, the team with whom they lost the league final three years ago.

From Perpignan to Paris

The city of Paris once had a rugby league team in the Super League, Paris Saint-Germain. In fact, the first match in the competition's history was a PSG-Sheffield in 2006, but the football club quickly lost interest in its rugby league section and made it disappear. Now, this form of rugby will once again see a match in the French capital thanks to the Dracs. "It was not easy at all to bring a match to Paris, but the league officials have trusted us. Twenty years later, we are still here and I hope we haven't exhausted our ability to surprise," says Bernard Guasch, who admits that the idea of playing in Paris had been on his mind for years. "The idea was to do it years ago, but the pandemic postponed everything," comments a man who always seeks to surprise, as they did in 2019 when they played at the Camp Nou in Barcelona a match with 31,555 spectators, a record for the club.

"It's a special season with thirteen new players in the squad. Our goals are to be very competitive. And to have a clear identity as a team and as a club," explains Guasch, who made it clear twenty years ago that before each match, "

Els segadors" had to be played to reinforce the commitment to Catalan identity of the team. If USAP of Perpignan in rugby union plays "L'estaca" before their matches, when the Dracs play, the Catalan anthem is played. And if USAP has normally been the powerful club in Catalan rugby, in recent years the Dracs have been doing better, and they will play "Els segadors" at the Jean Bouin stadium in Paris this June. It is a venue that can hold 19,000 people. "We want to fill the stadium, that is our intention. We will work to try to get trains to bring all the people from the south to Paris, not only from Perpignan, but also from towns with a rugby tradition. Many people in Paris also follow this sport. And we have a large Catalan community in the city, so our idea is to mobilize all these communities," adds Guasch, who is determined that the club will one day be champions of the Super League. They have always come close, but he doesn't give up, while the Dracs continue to be the best ambassador for Catalan rugby.