LONG READ Can star-studded trio reawaken sleeping giant Béziers?

In sport, the ‘sleeping giant’ cliche is a useful shorthand metaphor – in two words it indicates a storied history and an as-yet unrealised potential for future greatness at any given club.

It’s more commonly football parlance, but there’s no reason it could or should not equally apply to club rugby.

French rugby, for example, has its fair share of sleeping giants. Two-time French champions Stade Bagnérais started the fifth-tier Fédérale 1 season at a rare lick, winning their first five games. Third-tier Nationale sides Narbonne and Tarbes share four French championships between them. Agen, with eight titles, and Biarritz, with five, are both in the second division of French rugby, the ProD2.

As are Béziers, arguably the sleepiest of the French rugby giants. Only Toulouse and Stade Français boast more titles than the Hérault side’s tally of 11.

They won their first Brennus in 1961. Then, in a 14-year run between 1971 and 1984, driven by a fearsome pack, they lifted the shield another 10 times, and were also runners-up in 1976.

But 1984 was their last final. They have yo-yo’d between the divisions since, even slipping into the amateur leagues for a while. But, four years after a calamitous takeover bid failed, there’s more than a hint of a new future at Stade Raoul-Barrière.

Former rugby stars Andrew Mehrtens and Bob Skinstad, and ex-Formula 1 boss Eddie Jordan are part of a consortium on the verge of taking a majority stake in the historic side, town mayor Robert Menard told a fans’ forum recently.

Mehrtens, who finished his playing career at the club in south-west France, when it languished in Fédérale 1, before spending two seasons as first backs and then head coach, is reportedly set to play a major boardroom role in the running of the Hérault club once the buyout is completed.

There were whispers – some of which proved at least partially accurate – but the disciplined silence out of both camps has been telling. Talks have been ongoing, apparently, since January.

Ex-Springbok flanker Skinstad was spotted in the stadium dressing room during a pre-season friendly against neighbouring Narbonne, while former Northampton, Bayonne, Provence and Béziers scrum-half Johnny Howard is also involved in the deal, according to reports.

On the whole, the potential new owners have kept a low profile while the behind-the-scenes processes ploughed ahead. There were whispers – some of which proved at least partially accurate – but the disciplined silence out of both camps has been telling. Talks have been ongoing, apparently, since January.

“[The deal] took a long time,” Menard told supporters at the meeting at the club’s Stade Raoul-Barrière as he confirmed for the first time the three names at the top of the buyout ticket, “and I think it was normal to take all the usual precautions to avoid new disappointment.”

His reference was clear. He wanted no repeat of the events of summer 2020.

Béziers have been in local authority ownership since August 2021, just over a year after a whirlwind, high-profile and ultimately tragic takeover attempt was ruled out as unviable by professional rugby’s financial watchdog.

The council bought the club for a symbolic €1. Menard said at the time that the club would have been busted down to the amateur leagues within 48 hours had he not acted and provided financial guarantees to the league.

In doing so, the Town Hall took on the club’s debts. This was a first for French professional rugby – and it was controversial. Boulogne-Billancourt basketball club has been the only other professional sports club in France owned by the municipality. And Meynard made it clear, even then, that he was more than willing to examine any and all “serious” offers.

Other names were mentioned in breathless dispatches, including those of Dan Biggar, Juan Imhoff, and Beauden Barrett. All had, reportedly, been contacted. None, it was also reported, had responded.

The difference between the apparent quiet competence of the current takeover, and the deafening roar that accompanied the collapsed bid fronted by Christophe Dominici is remarkable.

Thirteen months before the council stepped in, Dominici was the public face of a buyout backed, it was claimed, by an Emirati businessman. The shiny packaging was thoroughly tempting. The club’s €5million debt would be wiped out, while a roster of big-names were lining up to move to south-west France.

Stars such as Ma’a Nonu, Jordan Taufua, Benjamin Fall, Marika Koroibete and Semesa Rokoduguni were among a long list of players ‘ready to come’ to join the bright new future on the Mediterranean coast, Dominici and his supporters insisted.

Other names were mentioned in breathless dispatches, including those of Dan Biggar, Juan Imhoff, and Beauden Barrett. All had, reportedly, been contacted. None, it was also reported, had responded.

Regardless, Béziers was to boast a squad the likes of which had not been seen in the ProD2 since Toulon’s promotion-winning Galacticos of a decade-and-a-half earlier – who included George Gregan, Victor Matfield, Mehrtens and Anton Oliver, under player-coach Tana Umaga.

Rodrigo Roncero and Juan Martin Hernandez were ready to lead the new Beziers’ coaching ticket, while Freddie Michalak, it was reported at the time, was lined up as sporting director. And Dominici would become club president.

Beziers had limped to ninth the previous season, so it’s not hard to see why many fans were sold on the idea. This would have been a Top 14 side in the ProD2.

But French rugby’s financial guardians aren’t swayed by such matters. They want to see the hard numbers. They needed guarantees. And when those guarantees didn’t arrive and the numbers didn’t add up, they said ‘non’.

It’s a good time to sell on a club that Béziers Town Hall had bought to rescue and was only ever looking to own for a relatively short period.

Once that decision was handed down, the list of players and coaches said to be heading to Stade Raoul-Barrière evaporated.

On 24 November that year, Dominici was found dead at the foot of a 10m drop in Parc de Saint-Cloud, south-west of Paris. A police investigation could not establish a reason for his death. In a book published earlier this year, his widow said he had struggled to sleep for months because of the failed ‘Béziers project’.

A somewhat less dramatic deal got the go-ahead. Béziers finished 12th in 2020/21. The following year, the council took over. The budget was increased by €800,000, and the club climbed to ninth the following season. They repeated that finish in 2022/23, before roaring back up the table to third last season. They then beat Brive 33-31 in a dramatic play-off barrage-round match, but lost a hard-fought semi-final 27-21 against eventual champions Vannes.

It’s a good time to sell on a club that Béziers Town Hall had bought to rescue and was only ever looking to own for a relatively short period.

Heading into the second block of five matches, Béziers were third in the ProD2. A 28-23 sixth-round defeat at Nevers saw them drop to sixth. They boast the league’s best early possession and territory stats, and they have the leading points scorer in Portuguese scrum-half Samuel Marques.

So Mehrtens, Skinstad and Jordan are buying into a club that, after a difficult period, looks to be heading in the right direction.

Following a delayed meeting on Monday, Menard told local newspaper Midi Libre that the financial details of the deal had been settled – and, crucially, approved by the league – but that details of the governance arrangement were to be finalised. The deal, he said, was expected to go through quickly.

But, after all this time, and in light of Béziers’ earlier disappointment, he wasn’t about to rush anything. The fans, too, are more cautious. A happy ending for this sleeping giant might just be the result everyone is looking for.