A small Town with the big Rugby celebration . . .
Auterive (30 km south from Toulouse) is a small town (9.500 inhab.) situated on the both sides of the river L´Ariege, "coming down" from Pyrénées, from the height of 2.400 meters...
Last month the Town was full of rugby veterans from different European countries, when Les Lougarous Rugby Veterans have celebrated their 25th Anniversary with a big international veteran rugby tournament, as the part of EVRA European Series. Teams form Belgium, England, Hungary, Italy and of course France, followed the invitation of the organiser Guy Quaranta and his voluntarely "team" of helpers (more than 60 Club members) to visit Auterive and to experience real "French way of celebration".
The quest team was Europe - EVRA Select Team, this time with the players from Belluno (Italy), European 2019 Festival Organiser , Bandar Log (Winner of EVRA Award 2017) from Marseille and Germany. Guest players in EVRA Selection were Patrick Caublot (Founder&Presiident of Memoire du Rugby Association, Amiens) and Thierry Dias (EVRA Representative South France).
EVRA Team was led by the Vice-President Elio De Anna (Italy) and the Team Manager/Secretary Marko Protega (Germany)..
On Saturday May 19th, the "early teams appointment" gave the players the possibility to start one hour after enjoying the coffee reception offered by "never tired" hosts . . .
As the referees gave the last instructions to the team captains, the tournament games started at two excellent grass rugby pitches, at A.S Lougarous Sports Centre. Ten a side rugby was played on the halfs of the each of the pitches, 15 minutes each game, every team played nine matches . . .
The lunch brake offered the players the opportunity to enjoy the traditional sausage fries as the part of very sports menu.
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