“Les Youkies” visit Penarth

On the eve of the Wales v Scotland international on Friday evening (March 14), a team of Penarth Veterans hosted a jolly group of French tourists disguised as a rugby team.

The 40-odd visitors belong to the “Les Youkies” a social rugby club from the French Ministry of Environment and located in Paris. The club formed in 1977 is active in what the French call, the Corporate Championship, playing against teams from other companies and Parisian institutions. Every other year during the Six Nations they visit one of the other five capitals, and this year, after short tours to Scotland (where they were hosted by Inverleith RFC), Ireland (Parkmore RFC) and Italy (Capitolina RFC) they arrived in Penarth for their “YoukiWales Tour 2014”.

A good time was had by all, with the Penarth Veterans outscoring the visitors by six tries to four after a fast moving match. The referee, a young French student from Bretagne on an exchange at Cardiff University, was excellent and contributed to the atmosphere of good will and good fellowship.

The food for the after match informal function do was prepared by Athletic Club Chairman Andy Jones and included an amazing spread of French gastronomic delicacies, from the 40 regions represented on the touring party. The visitors, led by their energetic tour manager Pierre Brunet were entertained by Chairman Mike Clare, Vice-Chairman Chris Thau and Social Secretary Peter Goodfellow and were presented with an autographed copy of the club history “The Spirit of Penarth”.

Pierre Brunet said,”I can assure you that the 40 of us had an wonderful time in Wales and have brought back home some unforgettable memories.. The evening we spent  together in Penarth  (+ the night that followed for some of you who joined us!) is definitely one of the two highlights of our tour, the other one being the national anthems ceremony at the Millennium Stadium. “