Day from hell for new Top 14 club as 71 points conceded and ‘beautiful symbol’ stolen at agricultural show
Pro D2 champions Montauban has their shield stolen while on display as a fruit and vegetable show
Montauban’s first Top 14 campaign in 15 years went from bad to worse last Saturday, with cruel developments both on and off the pitch in France.
On the field, they conceded 71 points away at European champions Bordeaux, their third straight defeat this season. That losing run has left them pointless and bottom of the table in their first top-flight campaign since 2009/10.
However, the weekend soon got worse for the club that defied the play-off odds last season, somehow managing to secure promotion to the Top 14 despite finishing sixth on the regulation season table.
Montauban reeled off three successive away wins, defeating third-place Colomiers, second-place Brive and then first-place Grenoble in Toulouse to secure the most unlikely of promotions last June.
“If it’s a joke in bad taste…”
But that trophy win has now encountered a dastardly twist 15 weeks later as the Pro D2 shield was stolen while on display at an agricultural show at the weekend.
Following a request from the Tarn-et-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture, the rugby club agreed to loan the shield to the ‘Welcome to the Countryside’ fair at the Bexianis farm in Montbeton.
It was proudly put on display in the fruit and vegetable pavilion at the show, only for it to mysteriously go missing later on Saturday, and it has yet to be found despite the launching of a police investigation.
The La Dépêche newspaper reported that when it came to putting the shield away after being on display for the day in the pavilion, it was nowhere to be seen.
Organisers initially thought the incident was a joke, but as the minutes turned into hours, they eventually realised the shield had been stolen and police were contacted.
The case is complicated by the show site being so vast, open to the public and not having surveillance cameras.
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Jean-Philippe Viguie, president of the Tarn-et-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture, explained: “We had it on display, it was a superb celebration. The shield is a beautiful symbol; it represents values of combativeness and solidarity that are dear to us.
“Someone is spoiling the party… We don’t understand what happened. The shield was in a safe place. If it’s a joke in bad taste, people should bring it back quickly.”
The theft is an embarrassing gaffe, but the upside is that the shield on display was a replica, as the original is retained by La Ligue Nationale de Rugby.
While the Montauban club awaits developments in the trophy investigation, their team is picking up the pieces of Saturday’s 24-71 loss at Bordeaux.
Having opened their top-flight campaign with a 24-47 defeat at Stade Francais, they were competitive in the 18-25 loss at home to Lyon and will now hope that home comforts can help when they host Montpellier next Saturday in Round Four.
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