I've always had a good robust tussle with Cyrille in our matches (below in a cup match); last season he also came over to apologise for drilling a ball into our goal past my head. His English may be only slightly worse than my French but I appeciated his effort.
Probably the hockey team didn't really understand what they were getting when they asked me to be the captain - "Will you captain the side on the pitch - you're the only one who talks to us during the game". Quite ironic really as my sporting French vocabulary is still pretty sketchy.
So, we now have the team huddle before the match in English:
"Are we here to look pretty?" - NO
"Are we here to have a nice day out?" - NO
"Are we here to win?" - YES Allez, Allez, Allez La Baule
(Marianne spoke for most of the team I suspect when she said "I've no idea what you're saying but I know I have to shout NO, NO, YES")
But as well now the players know which position they are playing before the start, only one person talks at a time during team talks and I do spend a lot of time talking to them during the game. I'm even slipping into sporting clichés as I realised I'd asked at half-time for 110% effort in the second half.
And, despite a pitifully thin squad and erratic availability, after defeating Entrammes 3-0 our keen little team is now top of the table by six points. And the old guy at the back is still shouting at them in comical French ;o)
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