History
In the 2001 to 2002 season, RC CERN achieved a remarkable turn-around, storming its way from the Swiss 3rd to the 2nd division. As if this were not enough, the team, the same one that almost closed its doors in Spring 2000, was then promoted to Switzerland’s 1st division.CERN is the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, and people working at its headquarters on the Swiss/French border come from all over the world. It was in this unlikely environment, surrounded by physicists at the cutting edge of science that one of the most successful rugby teams in Switzerland was formed more than 40 years ago.
The club first came into being in 1960, driven primarily by Messrs Gamble, Plàa and Gambotti who organised friendly games against other local organisations. The first pitch was actually located on the CERN site for those who know CERN, it was just behind the main building on a site now occupied by the Microcosm and the children’s nursery. The club’s president in 1965 was André Cordaillat, who was to be instrumental in the creation of the Fédération Suisse de Rugby in 1971, becoming that organisation’s first president.
Switzerland’s first official league was created in 1972. The inaugural season started with 17 teams in two leagues. CERN, which had teams in both leagues, finished 2nd in the first division, and 8th in the second division. That same season, however, CERN’s first team won the Swiss cup which had been formed two years previously.
The next season saw CERN win both the Swiss Cup and the Swiss league, and in the twenty years that followed, CERN won the league ten times and the Swiss Cup seven times. The club moved to its present ground in the commune of St Genis in France in 1984, and was officially renamed RC CERN St Genis, but was still known as RC CERN.
But in 1994, CERN was relegated to the 2nd division for the first time in its history, and it took a further three years to get back into the first division. All was not well within the club. Having managed to gain only 4th and then 6th place in the last years of the 20th century, the club was withdrawn from the FSR in spring 2000 following problems between the committee and players, and a shortage of players to meet match commitments. The club, it seemed, was no more.
In the autumn of 2000, however, a few players got together to “throw a ball around” and had soon decided to try and restart the club. With just enough players to make a team, they started playing friendly matches again in November 2000. Ray Veness became temporary president, and approached the FSR to try and gain admittance for the club to the FSR.
In the Spring of 2001 the club played its first competitive matches, reaching the semi-final of the Federation cup. It was to be another five months until the club was allowed back into the FSR, and it then had to start at the bottom again, in the C league west.
The club won all but one match in the league. Then came a match that those who played will remember for years. To gain promotion to the second division, CERN had to play off against the winners of the C division east, Zurich II. Zurich were determined to gain promotion, to allow them to create a third team. CERN went down 0 – 10 in the opening minutes of the match, only to go on and win 18 – 10 in a nail-biting thriller.
CERN were securing their position in the Swiss league, gaining more players and playing in the second division. Again losing only one match in 2002, at the end of the season came a three-match play-off, and by winning two of the three matches CERN secured its rightful place in the first division. After two years as “temporary” president, having seen the club back to the first division, Ray Veness handed over responsibility for the club, to allow others to take it further forward.
In October of 2003, after 43 years Rugby Club CERN was no more. In its place came the new club Rugby Club CERN – Meyrin – St. Genis or RC CMSG. This came about after merging CERN with the well established rugby school, Ecole de rugby Meyrin. In 2003 the Meyrin U14 cadets won the French National 12′s competition. This merger brought together two well respected clubs and made RC CMSG one of the largest rugby clubs in Switzerland.
After a tough 2006-07 season, RC CMSG dropped into LNB again. We aimed to go straight back up, and won the LNB promotion final in June 2008,but unfortunately some administrative issues kept us in LNB.
In the 2008-9 season, we recruited a new coach, Claude-Aimé Ezoua, who took the Ivory Coast national squad to the IRB World Cup in South Africa in 1995. This new impetus, coupled with strong new recruits drove the team and hunger for success was a strong motivational factor. In fact, during the whole season the seniors only lost one game in the league (away to Lugano), and one in the cup, with 16 victories. In fact, RC CMSG is undefeated at our home pitch in the league for the last two seasons!
We won the playoffs, meaning that we will play in LNA again in the 2009-10 season! Back in the Swiss elite, where we belong!
