Justine Pelletier column: Inside Stade Bordelais' Élite 1 four-peat

I didn’t think that we had won a fourth AXA Élite 1 title in a row until the last 20 minutes. We had been defending on our own goal line for a while. ASM Romagnat had a lot of lineouts in our 22-metres and there were these little mistakes that they made, that finally made me chill. We had it. We still had to defend. We had to be calm and confident. We didn’t panic. Because when panic arrives that’s when stuff hits the fan.

When the referee blew the final whistle I just hugged Rose Thomas. She was one of my first teammates when I arrived in Bordeaux six years ago and she has been coaching us since her retirement. Sunday was actually her last game with us. It really meant a lot to celebrate with her before I joined everyone else on the pitch.

To be honest I did not know that our fourth championship in a row was so historic. Maybe seeing the Top 14 final the day before underlined it to me a bit when Stade Toulousain beat Montpellier at the Stade de France. Toulouse’s women’s side won six titles in a row between 1975 and 1980. Maybe that’s the next thing for us. Who knows?

What I love about France is that these sorts of things are celebrated. Because they are things that are worth celebrating. It is pretty historic. It is a big achievement. And you have to enjoy it.

It has been really fun celebrating with the girls this week. On Monday we went to a sports bar just to eat food and rewatch the game on the huge screens that they have. I am awful at that. I get so frustrated. I see too many imperfections and things we could have done better. Even though I know we won the game. It is illogical.

After that we went for a little dance. Today we are taking a boat onto the river and having a party there. We have over a week worth of stuff planned. It is impressive that we got as much in the diary as we did. Most things were booked on the way back from the final or the day after. Some of it is the same as last year. Some of it has changed. We have got our celebrations down to a bit of a fine art now.

Because a lot of us are at university or work alongside playing for Bordeaux, people are using up their holidays for this week of celebrations. It is probably one of my favourite weeks of the year. We just get to spend time with each other. No rugby. No work or assignments getting in the way. Just quality time.

That has been a priority for us this season. It has been quite a long season. This time a year ago a lot of us were in international camps. It could have been really easy to just let fatigue take over. But we wanted to win again.

We made a new leadership group this year – me, Agathe Sochat, Madoussou Fall-Raclot, Sarah-Maude Lachance, Sarah Tounesi, Marie Ibanez, Annaelle Deshayes and Elsa Peyras – and we sent around a Google Doc to ask a few questions. Things like; who do you see as a leader? Who do you follow? Which teammates would you go on holiday with? That sort of stuff.

It was a really good collective learning experience for all of us. A few names kept on coming up. For us in the leadership group, doing that helped us to plan stuff together. Looking back at that now, I think it really helped us all get on the same page for the season.

One of the reasons I think that alignment was so important is because of how long the season was. Like I mentioned earlier, this time a year ago a lot of us were in Women’s Rugby World Cup camps across the world.

Right now, I am sat here writing this column and I am super happy. A few months ago I was not sure I was going to feel like that. After the World Cup I was mentally exhausted. When you are tired like that everything is a challenge. It was hard to come back to a different team, a different game plan and a different culture. Everything had been about Canada for so long.

Before Christmas I took the pressure off performance a little bit. I’d also started a Masters in the optimisation of sports performance in Bordeaux so I wanted to focus on that too.

It was after Christmas that I started building up my rugby again. The more connection that I had with the girls, the more enjoyment I was having on the field. The love of rugby was always there. I just had to unlock it at the right time.

It has felt like we won Élite 1 differently this year generally. We had a little bit more disruption. Some of that did happen when we all came back from the World Cup because we were all on different pages. The big thing was François Ratier leaving to be head coach of France.

None of us were surprised when the FFR appointed him. How could we be? He had coached us to three titles in a row. We all knew he was the best person to take that team on.

We also started the season with two losses. That isn’t usually something that happens to us. We even had a few injuries. But we stuck at it and believed in ourselves. Sometimes that is the solid foundation that a championship winning team needs.

I really think Élite 1 is in a strong place. Players love playing in it and I feel like we are still riding the wave of the World Cup last year a bit. I think you can see that from the attendances at the Women’s Six Nations this year. I – and a lot of the other players in the league – really want to be involved in taking Élite 1 to the next level.

You may have seen the Clermont players with white armbands in the final with ‘amatrices’ written on them. Amateurs. That is what we are in this league. It is amazing what sacrifices some of the players in this league do to compete at the weekend.

Players want rugby to be their priority. In France there is this great expression about taking off the handbrake and just letting loose. This year we have had so much more coverage. It has felt like sponsors and broadcasters have been so much more engaged with us. It feels like the right time to go to the next level. And for us to do that sustainably.

Sometimes when I look at PWR [Premiership Women’s Rugby] I do get a little jealous. We do a lot of the same things here. We train so much, but their communication and marketing is so much better. That’s the standard I want Élite 1 to reach one day. We are getting there.

We just need visibility. We need to make a plan. I know that’s not easy. But I know we can work that out. It is possibly more important that the clubs are the mothers of any change. There are so many people here that want to help find the solution. No one is better than yourself to create change.