Français
Despite their 56-14 defeat in the championship final against defending champions Good Luck du Gosier, L'Entente des îles du Nord, between Saint-Barthélemy's Rascasses and Saint-Martin's Archigirls, finished the season in second place in the Guadeloupe women's rugby championship.
It's a historic second place for women's rugby in the Northern Isles, which was still in its infancy just a decade ago. Although the feat didn't come to fruition on Saturday evening at the Rose field in Goyave, the Iles du Nord women's rugby team held on for the entire duration of the match, but in the end came up short.The Iles du Nord women's rugby team held out for the first half of the match, but finally succumbed in the second half, losing 56-14 to the Good Luck de Gosier women's team, who retained their title.
The opening stages of the match were very tight, with the Northern Isles taking the lead (7-5 in the 15th minute) thanks to a solo try from the inspired Céline Galibert, converted by fly-half Alice Gatelier. After that, however, a major lapse in concentration, particularly in defense, penalized both Ascasses Saint Barths and Archigirls Saint Martinoises. As a result, the Gosieres took control of the scoreboard.
A final try at the end of the match, once again scored by the same Galibert-Gatelier double-team, gave them the lead. They scored and converted respectively.
Hope for the future
While the result of the final may seem eloquent, it should in no way detract from the fine season achieved by Fabien Maurel's players. Progressing match after match, despite training sessions truncated by the fact that two teams from two neighbouring islands have to get together to train, create cohesion and bring the group to life. The task of doing well in the league was going to be a tough one, but the players, management and staff all put in a great deal of effort to ensure that a fine season could be achieved under the right conditions. "Remember that in 2017, women's rugby in the Northern Isles was just a bunch of friends who wanted to play for fun, with no real sporting objective. But now, in 2025, that's all changed! We've reached the final of the championship, and that's a marker of our progress. During the final, we lacked success and perhaps didn't believe in it enough, although the last try shows us that there was room for improvement. But we're still proud of ourselves despite this defeat in the final," sums up the lively Zora Stratenwerth. Coach Fabien Maurel agrees, preferring to remember what has been achieved as much as what remains to be done: "We made a final, it's a first, it's beautiful. We'd never got that far before, so of course losing gives you a headache, but we can capitalize on what we've done to get back on track, starting next autumn, when we'll be doing much better. "It's clear, then, that the Entente des îles du Nord don't want to leave it at that, as scrum-half Cloé Decalvuez emphasizes: "With the season we've just had, next year we won't be able to surprise our opponents, and that's all to the good. We're now one of three teams at a very similar level, capable of winning the championship, and that's a real motivation for us. "
From now on, the competition has been warned: the Entente des îles du Nord, Saint-Barth - Saint-Martin, now the reigning Guadeloupe runners-up, are aiming to go even higher, and no later than next season.
