Guy Novès during France-Japan, November 25, 2017. His last match at the head of the Blues.
-
JEE / Sipa
Heads Up
, the autobiography of Guy Novès, comes out this Thursday.
If he assures that "the scar is closed", the former coach of the XV of France is not tender in his work with Bernard Laporte and Serge Simon, at the origin of his dismissal, before a trial won at the prud ' men.
The Stade Toulousain manager also opens up with an emotion he was not used to during his career.
Guy Novès (67) has been living away from microphones for almost two years.
Having emerged victorious from his industrial tribunal against the FFR, with a check for one million euros in his pocket, the former coach of the XV of France, fired with a bang in December 2017, then announced his retirement.
Today, the successful former coach of Stade Toulousain is back in force in the news, through an autobiography (
La Tête haute
, at Hugo Sport) published this Thursday.
His media tour takes him away for a time from the peaceful everyday life in his refuge in Pibrac, in Haute-Garonne.
“I cycle every day, more like a stationary bike now, then gymnastics, details for
20 minutes
this athlete by training, physical education teacher before plunging into pro rugby.
I am very available for my children and my grandchildren.
In a few days, I will be a grandfather for the fifth time.
Otherwise, the house is perfect [laughs].
I am thinking of my walks in Leucate [Aude], of going fishing with friends… ”
"La Tête haute" by Guy Novès with Jean-Louis Laffitte and Grégory Letort.
🏉
Available from March 4 ➡️ https://t.co/mNVY45Apm4
The greatest coach in the history of French rugby tells his story.
pic.twitter.com/ELrimDVgx7
- Hugo Sport (@HugoSport_Ed) February 9, 2021
What about today's rugby?
"I watch the meetings," he simply slips.
“But I don't skip a game when there is one.
I observe, I smile.
He won't say more.
As if he felt a million miles away from the stories of the breakthrough bubble that poisons the life of the federal binomial Bernard Laporte - Serge Simon, whom he always criticizes for having spoiled his end of his career.
"It's not my story anymore," he sweeps away.
I won [the case], I'm home.
What is happening today does not interest me at all.
"
The most successful man in tricolor rugby devotes the last six chapters of his book, written with journalists Grégory Letort and Jean-Louis Laffitte, to his abortive adventure in Blue, started full of hopes after the 2015 World Cup and concluded in bitterness barely two years later, then in his fight to repair the outrage.
"It's rugby that lost"
Regarding the re-election of Laporte to the FFR last October, the one who supported the opponent Florian Grill writes: “rugby has lost and will continue to lose”.
"No coach has suffered what I have suffered", also squeals the predecessor of Jacques Brunel and Fabien Galthié, of whom he is not the greatest fan (euphemism ...).
“Galthié, I found him in his place as a consultant on France Televisions, his technical explanations were relevant, he notes at the end of the book.
As a coach, he did not make me dream.
"
We can always try uchronia, wonder what the health bubble would have been if Novès was still in office, he who was accused of playing the guard-shifts of another era with players watched like kids.
At the time, it was not easy to get out of Marcoussis, "even to buy a toothbrush" said the bad tongues, so let's not talk about going to see the game of the little one in Paris.
Asked about the end of his career in a fishtail, the former international winger is much less scathing than in the book: “It's past.
I don't think about it every day.
When I am asked the question, it stirs the knife a little in the wound.
But the scar is closed.
"
However, the autobiography is not limited to an indictment against Laporte and Simon.
The straight-faced coach also drops the mask.
“A lot of people have supported me throughout my career.
One of my former students when I was a professor at the college of Pibrac set up a Facebook group from Quebec, at the time of my trial.
It brings together 30,000 people!
I wanted to thank all these people with this book, telling them: "this is where I come from".
"
But still ?
“I want them to know that my journey is the result of a lot of work, commitment, and exemplary behavior.
The coach has to lead by example, that's something very, very important.
"
A sad end to Ernest-Wallon
His parents, his grandmother, his wife, his three children… Novès forgot no one and retraces his social rise by insisting more on the human side than “rugby”.
His saga at Stade Toulousain, as a player and then a technician, resembles a gallery of portraits spanning four decades.
It ends sadly, with a secret tribute one day of doubling, in a depopulated Ernest-Wallon Stadium.
“I am sensitive to the attentions of others,” he replies when we discuss with him this emotion not necessarily expected.
People as cold as icebergs don't exist.
“If he evokes his troubled relations with some Toulouse legends (Christophe Deylaud, Christian Califano…), he praises others, such as Patricio Albacete, Thierry Dusautoir or the very fiery Irishman Trevor Brennan.
"When you need him, a quarter of an hour later, he's there," smiles Novès.
Like Florian Fritz, they are able to go to the end.
They are people dear to my heart.
"
A refused offer from "a big Top 14 club"
Guy Novès therefore takes stock, (quite) calmly.
From time to time he gives corporate conferences.
“I just did my first video, it was interesting.
But rugby is a thing of the past.
"A few days ago, I received an offer from a big Top 14 club," he says at the end of the line, hiding the name of the president who contacted him.
But it's really over, I'm 67 years old.
Finally, the link is not quite cut: the profits from his book will be donated to the Leucate club, his other anchor with Pibrac.
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