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After being selected to participate in the first gathering of the season for what will become the Guadeloupe women's rugby team for the 2025-2026 season, Marine Cantadore, Cloé Devaluez, Chloé Carbonnel, Elise Howard, Alice Gatelier, and Célyne Galibert were among the 25 rugby players called up by Audrey Galthié, the coach of the Guadeloupe women's rugby team. Accompanied by Olivier Pratt and Fabien Maurel, coach of the Northern Islands team, the coach supervised two days of training based on intensity and repetition of effort. Fabien Maurel explains the coach's plan of action: "We don't have much time to get the girls working together, so we need to focus on fluid and effective rugby, both in terms of instructions and the game system. During the first selection meeting, we don't go into tactical details; it's too early and time is short."
Logically, the selected players are giving their all to impress the staff, but above all to improve, because this gathering of the best players from Guadeloupe and the Northern Islands offers each of them the opportunity to train and challenge themselves in optimal conditions.
Alice Gatelier of Les Rascasses agrees: "Two years after my last selection for the Guadeloupe team, I'm happy to be lacing up my cleats again for this training camp. The intensity speaks volumes about what is, for me, a new challenge, different from the championship. Having the opportunity to train with so many committed girls is an additional source of motivation. Getting to know those we usually face at the weekend is not easy, but it's a challenge we already face throughout our season with our inter-club agreement with the Northern Islands."
The commitment required is significant because the pace is fast, so you have to hang on to stay in the good books of coach Audrey Galthié. At the end of the camp, the coaching staff will have to select 18 names. Chloé Carbonnel hopes to be among them, but above all she is proud of her selection and the quality of the training camp she and her teammates have completed: "After only a year and a half of playing rugby, it's very rewarding to already be noticed for this type of opportunity. The fact that six of us girls from Saint-Barth were selected for this training camp is really great and proves that the work we've put in over the last few years with the whole team and our coaches is paying off. We worked hard all weekend to show what we were capable of. We got on really well with the other girls and learned a lot and made great progress together during this intense and enriching experience."
The Rascasses selected at the end of this first gathering will form a group of thirteen players who will participate in the Antilles Guyane Tournament during the first weekend of April. As a precautionary measure and to compensate for any injuries that may occur during the season, five reserves will be invited to training sessions and gatherings before departure for French Guiana. "That's how selections work: some players are chosen and others are disappointed, a bit like a match sheet where not everyone on the team can appear on the field or on the bench," Fabien Maurel points out. Nevertheless, participating in a training camp with the regional elite remains an important moment in an amateur career, and while we wait to see some of the Saint Barth players wearing the regional team jersey, there is a women's championship to compete in, at the very least. A regional runner-up title to defend, under the banner of the Entente des Îles du Nord. The first day of the championship will be played in Saint Barthélemy on February 28. This will be followed by another gathering of the Guadeloupe team for a training camp at CREPS on March 7.
