In the second of a
two-part exclusive interview Brive CEO Simon Gillham
explains why he was so riled by BBC commentator Ian
Robertson, Brive’s unique take on transfer policy, his
relationship with Rob Andrew, the club’s future plans and
why Steve Thompson should be playing for England again.
Part I: The secrets behind Brive's
French success
On February 17th
2009 Brive announced they had signed England centre Riki
Flutey. It was a big enough story on its own – one of
England’s best players moving across the Channel to play in
Top 14 – but when his club London Wasps also confirmed that
international
colleagues James Haskell and Tom Palmer would be joining
Stade Francais all hell suddenly broke lose.
It was a huge story -
three England players announcing they were moving to France
in one day. The (largely one-eyed) media uproar was
unprecedented, and, as Brive’s CEO, Simon Gillham fell well
and truly into the firing line.
“There was an
extraordinary moment when Riki Flutey’s signing was
announced,” says Gillham. “I was on BBC Five Live being
interviewed along with Ian Robertson, and he came out with
this extraordinary statement. He said ‘It will be the end
for Riki Flutey. Where’s Brive? Brive’s off the map and
no-one even knows where Brive is. He’s only going there for
the dollar, but he’d earn much more if he stayed in England
because no-one is going to want his rights down in Brive’.
“I was sitting there
thinking ‘I’ve never seen this guy in Brive’, so when I got
on air their first question to me was pretty aggressive –
and I had never met this journalist before in my life. Their
first question was: ‘Alright Simon, how much are you paying
him?’
'The BBC journalist
was so rude'
“They were so rude, so
rude, and so I didn’t answer him. I said ‘We are absolutely
delighted that Riki is coming to Brive’ and I said ‘I would
like to point out that Mr Robertson doesn’t seem to have a
very good knowledge of Brive, but he’s welcome to come down
here whenever he likes’. Also, Andy Goode, who’s career was
dead as far as England were concerned while he was at the
greatest and most visible club in the British Isles
(Leicester Tigers) - and on the telly every bloody Saturday
– couldn’t get in the England team. Bizarrely, he goes off
to the sticks in the middle of supposed nowhere and he’s
playing for England, so we must be doing something right,”
explains Gillham.
It is the nearest he
gets to being riled during our lengthy interview, and hints
at the frustration of the two-dimensional picture painted by
the English press of the triple signing, and its
implications.
From an English
perspective it was largely portrayed as a money-driven
defection. A snub to the Guinness Premiership as the cashed
up French clubs, buoyed by a lack of salary cap and the
ever-strengthening Euro, came to plunder.
The high horses were
brought out, together with a plethora of soapboxes, and the
Wasps trio were largely vilified for having the temerity to
turn their backs on the English club game. The fact that
Guinness Premiership clubs had been terminating Antipodean
careers by the dozen on the back of their own previous
economic strength appeared to be conveniently forgotten, and
so did the manner of Goode’s recall – as Gillham pointed
out.
It was England that
came to Goode when their fly-half resources were running low
at the beginning of the Six Nations. And the reason they
came calling? Because Goode was enjoying life in Brive so
much that his rugby had moved up a notch.
Brive, of course, were
delighted. It’s always an honour to have your players
selected for national duty and they willingly released him
for a weeklong training camp in Portugal and then for all
subsequent England duties. Indeed, their total co-operation
was greatly admired by the England management team.
“I had lunch with Rob
Andrew a couple of weeks ago and we had a really nice time,”
confirms Gillham. “At the end he said ‘Simon, I would really
like to thank Brive for how professional you’ve been in the
way you managed Andy Goode for England’. All these people
giving us s**t doesn’t matter – apart from the fact I was
hurt by Robertson’s comments,” he added.
There was though,
inevitably, an official backlash, with the RFU eventually
announcing that in 50-50 selection decisions players based
in England would be preferred to those playing abroad. It
also stipulated that those venturing to France must have
certain clauses written into their contracts so as not to
negate the RFU’s multi-million pound EPS deal with Guinness
Premiership clubs.
Robertson aside,
Gillham remains remarkably calm about the whole furore.
'The RFU was obliged
to come out with that rhetoric'
“I think the RFU were
absolutely right. It was very important to them that they
made a strong and bold statement and I totally understand
what they did,” he says. “I think the RFU was obliged to
come out with that rhetoric.”
He confirms the club
has an excellent relationship with the England structure –
“Martin Johnson has always been incredibly respectful” – and
says his only real gripe is why born-again hooker Steve
Thompson hasn’t received a call-up. “He’s absolutely on
fire,” croons Gillham.
The likelihood is that
Brive will be in the transfer market again this summer, but
the swathes of players that have joined over the past two
years will be reduced to a trickle as it embarks on stage
three of a five year plan. “More evolution that revolution,”
says the club’s non-paid CEO.
When he was first
brought on board (in March 2007) by friend and club-owner
Daniel Derichebourg – estimated wealth of €500m – Brive were
constantly flirting with relegation and struggling to live
up to past glories.
“When we took over no French players really wanted to come
to Brive, it wasn’t fashionable,” he admits. “In fact, we
lost Yves Donguy to Toulouse, we lost Damien Chouly to
Perpignan and we lost Denys Drodz to Stade Francais. So, we
were haemorrhaging French players and we weren’t bringing in
new people, so we decided that all we were going to do was
we were going to try and recruit the best regardless of
race, religion, sexual tendency, whatever. We wanted to
assemble the best we could.”
Their two best
recruiters were Derichebourg – because of his money,
commitment and business track record – and Thompson –
because of his connections. The latter was still in
retirement at the time due to a neck injury, but the club
honoured a contract it offered him before the injury and he
came over as a consultant/coach/agent.
“Steve is one of the
pillars of the club. He helped with all sorts of things,”
confirms Gillham. “He said ‘Oh, I’ve got a mate who would
like to come’, and it just so happens his mate was Ben
Cohen!”
The Thompson connection
was also integral to bringing over the likes of Damien
Brown, Christian Short and Ben Johnstone, but Gillham
insists the club follows set procedures when it’s interested
in signing a player.
“We have a very strict
recruitment process. We refuse to discuss money with anybody
over the phone. We say, ‘Look, if you’re interested in
coming to Brive you come to Paris (or Brive) and we sit down
and have lunch or dinner and we meet you’. Daniel
(Derichebourg) always likes to meet them, and Laurent
(Seigne), and we usually bring a player. We sit down and
tell them all about our plan and what we’re trying to do and
we ask them what they are about and we all talk.
“Then we get to the end
of the dinner and they are very often on their own – or with
their agent – and we say ‘If you’re interested in coming to
Brive then tell us tomorrow, or the next day, and then we’ll
start negotiating’. Twice we’ve done it through what I call
‘mail order’ and we’ve had two bad surprises, so we’ll never
do that again.”
That plan he referred
to is a five-year strategy that began with securing Top 14
status, and this year targeted Heineken Cup qualification –
a twin track assault that is so far on course in both lanes:
finishing in the top six and winning the European Challenge
Cup.
