Chongqing (China) (AFP)

They slalom between studs, throw themselves on an oval ball, some cry because we did not pass the ball: while the major nations prepare for the World Cup, the future of rugby in China is played perhaps there, with these children, in the anonymity of a small room in the south-east of the country.

"Pass, get up and stop crying," hammer coach Zhang Shuangyi, both authoritarian and benevolent, at the Simba Rugby Youth Club in Chongqing.

Rugby quickly developed in the Japanese neighbor. So much so that the country of the Rising Sun will host the World Cup this year and attracts, more and more, glories of rugby, New Zealand or Australia, attracted by lucrative contracts offered by clubs with significant financial means.

It is much harder to get established in the Middle Kingdom, where "the olive ball", as some call him there, is still mysterious for many.

"Most people think it's a tough sport," says Zhang, who tries to instill in younger generations the values ​​of rugby.

Xia Jialiang, former member of the XV of China and co-founder of the Simba Club in 2009, wants to believe it: "the positive side with rugby is that when you taste it, there is something magical that operates, not only because of its sporting characteristics but also for the human values ​​of camaraderie that it conveys, "he told AFP.

"This kind of magic is something we hope to share," he adds.

- At the back of the pack -

"Here we encourage team spirit and sharing, and many of these young people are communicating a lot better since they are here," says the pioneer.

"Those who do not know anything about rugby stop at the rugged aspect of the sport, which demands total commitment," said Liu Ying, whose four-year-old daughter, Adora, plays the sport weekly. Simba club.

"She has become stronger, jumps farther and falls less often sick," he notes.

Nevertheless, attempts to develop rugby in a country of some 1.4 billion people are not successful. A $ 100 million offer from Alisports, the sports arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, to create professional women's and men's leagues, did not get the sport off the ground, and has so far been dropped.

Globally, China is at the bottom of the pack: it appears only in 80th position out of 105 countries. Far too far to claim to play one day a World Cup, while looming the first world of this discipline ever held in Asia.

The bulk of its activity is focused on dozens of amateur teams, drowned in the vastness of the megalopolises of the country.

The Chongqing Rangers, that of the Simba club, is one of them. Champion of her province and 4th at the national level, she tries to promote rugby by going to play exhibition games in small towns.

Despite the optimism of World Rugby, the supreme body of rugby that evokes a study that 30 million Chinese would be attracted by the sport, the path to recognition in China is still very long.

The Chinese Rugby Federation, whose means are derisory compared to basketball or football, did not deign to speak on the subject.

© 2019 AFP