It´s safe to say Liceo Frances President Javier Goitia is in a pretty good mood when we spoke to him earlier this year. And so he should be. Liceu were back in the top flight for the first time in nearly two decades and when we sat down with him they had just conquered Cisneros to move onto the División de Honor semi-finals (losing to eventual winners VRAC). “I´m amazed by the season but not surprised. We knew what we had.” What they had was 9 of the starting 15 coming from their own school and 13 of the 23 man team started “when they were kids in Liceo.”
“The perception is you can only play for Liceo if you went to the school. This is not true. “
Inevitably, when attached to a school the belief can be that the worst tendencies of private school Rugby Union culture of the anglosphere bleed into Spain . In a country desperate for players and an increased profile (likely to be harder after another Spanish Football tournament win), shutting the door is something the sport cannot afford to do in Spain. However, Javier is more than happy to correct this interviewers misconception. “That´s something I and the board have been trying to change and we are succeeding. It is open to anyone. I would say in our Under 16´s we have 40% who are outside (the school). We have opened up to Horteleza , where we live. “
“I think we (Liceo Frances) continue for a few more years … upsetting Spanish Rugby. “
Still , the Spanish Rugby pyramid is moving to two leagues of ten , making survival at the top level in Division de Honor harder than ever. So does Javier Goitia think the foundations are in place to stay up in this ultra competitive period of top flight Spanish Rugby? “I think they are. Today in the stands I saw three of our kids from the Six Nations Invitational tournament . If they stay in Spain (alot of kids go abroad), they stay at Liceo. That is something I think other teams do not have.”
You can listen to the full interview below.
