the essentials Appointed sports director of Colomiers during the summer, Philippe Filiatre is now the link between the professional team and the training centre.
At the age of 58, the now ex-director of the Colomiers training center, who has gone through all the strata of the club as an educator with young people up to coach of the pro team, Philippe Filiatre had the ideal profile to take on the role of director. athlete within the columérin club.
Philippe, had this position of sports director become a necessity within the club?
It is a common request of the presidents of the association and the predictor of the SASP. They want a real synergy between the pro sector and training at all levels of the club.
What will your roadmap be?
I would summarize it in three actions: having transversality from top to bottom and vice versa at the level of rugby but also on the structural aspect; develop the expertise of our staff and train our educators at the highest level so that they acquire the tools and skills because the goal is to have all our teams in the elite; finally, thinking about the future to know where we are going both structurally and with our teams. For example, identify key categories that bring on the training. Afterwards, everything is a question of means and we, we do with ours. We are another solution compared to Stade Toulousain, a solution which also has its success.
In your opinion, shouldn’t the training center be part of the professional structure?
You know, integrating a training center into the SASP is just an economic dimension. I will tell an anecdote. I was invited by the OM training center with whom I had discussions. I saw how they worked and during an OM U19 match, President Longoria was present. He came to see me and said to me: “You, with a budget of €350,000, bring out professional players whereas we have invested a budget of €7.5 million in the training center and for 4 years, not a pro ! He was of course talking about pros with high potential and high value (smile). In Colomiers, we pool resources on projects, we think about how we can benefit from advances in the professional structure to help us move forward.
It is true that in Colomiers, the young people have their chance and are launched without hesitation in Pro D2.
Yes. Last season, there were matches where we had 40% of players from our academy on the pitch. There is a momentum to maintain. Focusing on young people is one of our particularities. We develop it. For example, Crabos champions of France in 2007, there was a pro (Dubois, Ed). But of the 2019 vintage, there were seven!
What does Julien Sarraute expect from you?
He wants us to prepare players who meet his expectations. For example, he may ask us to work very early on an opener, a 3rd line or a center. It’s a succession plan. Before, we started to work on it with the Espoirs category. Today, we think of it from the category of Gaudermen (cadets, editor’s note). A relationship between the sports director, the training center and the coach of the pros is necessary. She exists. It must be preserved, it is my role to watch over it.
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