Rugby has come a long way in Gabon in a short space of time with the launching this season of a six-team league.
It's a world away from a clash between the All Blacks and Wallabies but Gabon has made significant strides in the sport.
Whereas once teams would attach sticks to the top of football goalposts to turn them into rugby woodwork, now, with the launch of an actual league, rugby is a growing passion in this small but oil-rich west African country.
"We're still at an amateur level but it's just about the love of the sport," said Stephane Boulaba, a 20-year-old law student who plays for Racing Club du Gabon.
"There's nothing more to it, except honour. It's just about the taste for playing, and winning."
There's still a long way to go, with all six teams coming from the capital Libreville, as none of them has enough money to travel anywhere else to play.
The one and only stadium is located next to the Owendo train station at the end of an unmade road on the outskirts of Libreville.
It has no floodlights, meaning matches must be finished by 6pm, and there is no scoreboard either.
But the pitch is of good quality and the players -- mostly locals, with the exception of the team from the French marines stationed in Libreville -- are keen.
"They're truly determined and they love it," said Jean-Marc Laissy, a hotelier who runs the Rugby Club de Libreville.
Teams cannot afford their own kits so use donations from French clubs.
Vautours, the police team, play in an old strip from French giants Toulouse while the Republican Guard use that of a fifth division amateur team from the town of Chinon in the Loire Valley.
"The guys from the Republican Guard were useless last year," added Laissy.
- Catching on fast -
"But there are some Cameroonians in the team who have improved their standard. It's through contact with more capable people that we progress."
For a country originally inhabited by pygmies, the Gabonese may not exactly be built to play rugby, but according to Pierre Duro, the founder of rugby in the country, and a former player at Racing Club de France in Paris, they do have certain physical attributes that suit them to the sport.
"The Gabonese are small and solid, explosive, aggressive and with a formidable physical constitution," he said.
Although rugby has been played in Gabon since the 1950s, that was by French players and it is only recently that locals, normally obsessed with football, have taken an interest in the oval ball game.
But it's catching on fast.
"It's a man's sport. You take knocks but you get used to it," said a beaming Boris Assoumou, a 19-year-old player with Owendo.
The next step is to turn the regional Libreville federation into a national one.
To do that, Gabon needs to create at least three provincial leagues, with the first in the oil capital, Port-Gentil, likely to see the light of day in the near future.
"The aim is by the 2015/16 season to have three leagues with teams that operate on a national level," said Sleydge Olimbi, president of the Libreville regional league.
"But all that requires money. Right now, we don't have the means to go and play matches in Port-Gentil."
But those involved are at least thinking big, hoping to attract investment from the government to grow rugby to become as popular as football or table tennis.
There are also plans to create a national team, although Olimbi admits they are still some way from that.
"Right now, we don't have the level to go abroad to play, even friendlies," he added.
Given how far they've come already, though, it should only be a matter of time.
Source: AFP
