Patrice Olivier of the Philippine Volcanoes signs with French rugby club Beziers
Patrice Olivier with Katana. Photo by JZ
Patrice Olivier of the Philippine Volcanoes, the national men’s rugby team, has just signed with the AS Béziers Hérault rugby club in France. This is the first professional contract for the half-Filipino, half-French Patrice, 21.
The Beziers stadium
The Beziers club marks its centenary this year. Founded in 1911 by Louis Viennet and Jules Cadenat, the club holds 11 championship titles in France and has been in 15 finals. Beziers dominated French rugby’s first division in the 1970s and 80s, winning a slew of titles. Today the club is in Federal 1, the third division.
The stadium is also known as Stade de la méditerranée.
In France, particularly in the south of France, rugby is one of the most popular sports. There are three other first and second division clubs within a 100km radius of Beziers—Perpignan Montpellier, the top 14 Narbonne, and Carcassonne Pro.
“Patrice is very athletic for his position,” says Beziers trainer Pierre Baldwin. “He has the qualities of power and of penetration which make us believe that in the near future he will be a very good professional player. For the next season he will be integrated into the training center where he will sign his first contract as a rugby player.”
Patrice with his Federale 1 teammates
“We are very proud that Patrice has been selected for the Philippine national teams, first for rugby sevens, and now for rugby fifteens,” adds trainer Diego Minarro. “This is for him an experience of the high level that will enable him to make even faster progress in the sport.”
Patrice was in the Beziers Under-21s team, Reichel.
Patrice arrives in Manila today to join the Volcanoes training camp for the A5N Division 1 tournament in Korea. Their first match is against the top-ranked Korean team on June 1. The Philippines, along with Japan, is the only undefeated team in Asian 5 Nations.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 24th, 2011 at 02:28
Congrats Patrice!!!
Was sooooo ecstatic to see you on Philippine TV last Sunday during the TV coverage of the test match and your number 1 fan (my officemate) noted how handsome you were on TV :D
Too bad I didn’t get to see the first TV coverage of the Volcanoes the Sunday before this :( Heard it was a good one :D
May 24th, 2011 at 02:36
Papa Patrice! Congratulations! I know this sounds OA but really, I… cried (?) upon reading this post! Thanks for posting Ms. Jessica! Tell him, “Félicitations!” pour moi. Merci bien.
May 24th, 2011 at 09:09
Awww, our baby is all grown up! Congrats Patrice!
May 24th, 2011 at 15:11
Félicitations, Patrice, bon courage!
May 25th, 2011 at 13:55
congrats patrice! for that, i’ll give you servings of gnasty gnocchi, fetidccine, and ground chuck, just drop by my zombie cafe..hehe..i’m your number 2 fan!!