It will take around two hours for the people of Rochelle to reach the 190 km by car on Saturday which separate them by road from the capital of their New Aquitaine region, Bordeaux.

This clash between title contenders - UBB is 2nd in the standings, La Rochelle 4th - is stamped "Atlantic derby", even if it lacks the patina of the old and geographical proximity.

"I don't feel like it's a derby," admitted La Rochelle prop Uini Atonio in an interview with AFP.

"Biarritz-Bayonne, I don't mind, it's stuck. French Racing-Stade, Castres-Toulouse ... But La Rochelle-Bordeaux, there is Angoulême, lots of cities in between".

"But if it's a derby for the supporters, it's a derby for us", corrects himself under his big beard the player of the XV of France of New Zealand origin.

Does the notion of derby still have a meaning in professional rugby, which has tightened the elite, today almost reserved for large cities, and seen the massive arrival of foreign players necessarily more detached from local issues?

The pillar of La Rochelle Uini Atonio reacts against Toulouse on June 25, 2021 at the Stade de France Loic BARATOUX AFP / Archives

"Rugby is, more than football, likely to reinforce a process of community identification because it is the only collective combat sport. A sort of ritualized war between two teams representing communities", answers the geographer to AFP. of sport Jean-Pierre Augustin, for whom "this process always works at different levels".

As sport abhors a vacuum, historical rivalries of "small geographical proximity" have been replaced by other derbies, almost out of social necessity.

"They will create excitement, spice up the lives of the inhabitants of one city or region compared to another", develops the researcher.

"Fandays"

This is what motivated the National Rugby League (LNR) to establish a special championship day in 2018, called "Fan Days" and intended to put supporters in the spotlight by offering them derbies and prestigious posters.

After two years disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 edition will notably see Toulouse carry out with its battery of internationals the 75 km to the boiling Pierre-Fabre stadium, where Castres Olympique have not lost since December 2020. .

A centenary derby, between the Toulouse "ogre" (3rd) and the "little" neighbor Tarn (5th), potentially decisive in the race for the top 6, as will be Sunday at the end of the day that of Ile-de- France between Racing 92 (7th) and Stade Français (11th), only separated by the ring road.

Stade Francais lost 36-21 at home in the first leg on September 4 at the Jean-Bouin stadium GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT AFP / Archives

Orphan of his former best enemy Corrézien, Tulle, fallen into the federal depths, Brive (12th) will play his maintenance and the supremacy of the Massif central 180 km from his home, on the ground of Clermont (8th), in the obligation to win in order to hope to see the final stages.

Montpellier (1st) will have a little more than 150 km to cover, along the Mediterranean, to defend its leadership position in Perpignan (13th), which still has a slim hope of avoiding the penultimate place, synonymous with the retention-relegation barrage.

Even seeing very wide, we cannot really speak of a derby between Lyon (6th) and Toulon (9th), two teams with opposite dynamics, any more than between Biarritz (14th) and Pau (10th).

The two cities of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques are only about 120 km apart, but for the BO, the real derby is played even closer, and between Basques, facing Bayonne.

A deep antagonism which, in the country of Espelette, certainly does not lack spice.

© 2022 AFP