Dutch Rugby Players Flock to Aurillac, France, Making it Their Ground
In the heart of France, a small town named Aurillac is making waves in the rugby world. The Pro D2 team, Stade Aurillacois, has been recruiting Dutch players in recent years, and their performances have been nothing short of impressive.
Tim Visser and Joost van der Westhuizen, two Dutch stars, joined the team and quickly made their mark. Both players demonstrated solid performances, significantly contributing to the team's offensive and defensive play. Another Dutch player, Hugo Huurman, arrived at Aurillac around the same time from The Hague.
Koen Bloemen, a reliable player with the status of captain, joined the team in 2024 from Bourg-en-Bresse. The team fielded five Dutch players in a match against Béziers, a testament to their growing presence. Most Dutch players arrive in Auvergne around their majority to perfect their training.
The Pro D2 is structuring itself, but it remains a tough competition, with Portugal, Georgia, Spain, and Romania proving to be formidable opponents. Despite this, the Aurillac team had an excellent start to the season, although they were saved in the access match against Chambéry last year.
The Dutch players in the current squad are all JIFF (players from training pipelines), speak perfect French, and are trained in the Aurillac way. Centre Juun Pieters is one of the pioneers of this Dutch contingent in the Pro D2. Koen Bloemen, Skip Jongejan, Tim de Jong, Boris Hadinegoro, and Juun Pieters are the Dutch players who participated in the match.
The success of the Dutch players in Aurillac has not gone unnoticed. The emergence of a successor to Zeno Kieft, a former Dutch third-row player with over 100 Top 14 matches for La Rochelle, could soon occur from this market. Toine Obiang Nguema, Manus Van Leeuwen, and Melvin Wevers are Dutch players who have joined training centres at La Rochelle, Bayonne, and Toulouse respectively.
The Aurillac example is inspiring other major French clubs to scrutinise the Dutch market for talent. It's unprecedented for a country little known in rugby to have such a large contingent at this level. The average height of Dutch people is 1.83 meters, according to the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics, suggesting a physical advantage in rugby.
The 2019 World Cup being broadcast in the Netherlands led to a noticeable difference. Pieters, who dreamed of French rugby since his childhood, joined Aurillac in 2019 after a year in Clermont. Fabian Holland, another Dutch player, made his debut with the All Blacks against the Blues this summer, further highlighting the potential of Dutch rugby talent.
With the second-lowest budget in Pro D2, at 5.8 million euros, Aurillac continues to punch above its weight, proving that with the right talent and training, even the smallest teams can make a big impact.
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