While she devoted herself to rugby at 7 in recent years, Carla Neisen has been one of the surprises of the list of thirty-eight players summoned to prepare the World Cup in England. If the Blagnacaise Center arrives in a project that she does not yet know perfectly, the competitor she is admitting that she intends to give herself the means to go to England.
It’s been a while since we had seen you at XV. How do you feel since your return?
It is a very special feeling to come back. I have not given XV for three or four years, apart from my Blagnac club. It is necessarily a lot of happiness. I am very, very happy. I didn’t necessarily expect it … It was a bit of surprise! When David Ortiz called me to tell me that I would be potentially in the extended group, I told myself that it had to be a kind of waiting list. I didn’t tell myself that I would necessarily be in the thirty-eight players for the preparation. A few days later, he told me that I was a part of the group to prepare the World Cup.
What feeling that dominates at that time?
Pride. Happy that a season like mine, the one I lived at 7, ends in this way on a big event and without pressure, since I was not with the girls this season. I just want to give the best, to help the best and, of course, to give the best for myself, too, to give me a chance. Whatever happens, it’s just a bonus. If I am one of those who go to England, I will be very happy. If I am not selected, it is because choices will have been made and that is how it should happen. But I am already very happy to be with the girls for this preparation.
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How do you feel in this group, with which you did not necessarily have benchmarks when you arrived?
I knew a few players, but there are new heads and a group that I am not used to. I rediscover a group of XV with thirty-eight girls, anyway. It’s been a lot, it’s not like 7! Even if I lived it, it’s always a bit special. Afterwards, I used to live these kinds of moments and over time, everything was done quite naturally.
On the ground, have you quickly found the automatisms?
I still did a little XV this season, it’s an advantage. The game project is underway. I take maximum information but overall, everything is done as you go. It will come and then, during the preparation and with these ten days in Tignes, we will play even more and find a little benchmarks with the girls who are next. The fact of talking to each other, of communicating, will help me.
Precisely, you talk about this preparation course in Tignes. How did you experience the beginnings at altitude?
The intensity of the training is quite gradually mounted. We had to adapt to the altitude, even if we are lucky to have an environmental room in Marcoussis which allows us to prepare for these conditions, upstream. Being here allows you to create more links. Getting out of our habits breaks our routine and allows us to meet people, to which we are not necessarily used to. We really enjoy that moment, it’s a chance to be here.
Do you start to feel the craze rising?
We were quite surprised in the world that there was at the first training open to the public. It gave us heart balm to realize that there are people who support us. Showing what we are doing, we work hard is very important moments for us and for women’s rugby in general. We are competitors, we want to have results for supporters too.
Last Wednesday, the group carried out its first “hypoxia” test. What were your sensations?
It’s completely different from what you can live in Marcoussis, indoors. We are locked up, so we lack air; Here too, but we feel much more the 3,000 meters above sea level. The breath is really cut quickly. I have often done this kind of test, so personally I probably went through it better than some.
You have always wanted to keep a link with XV rugby by playing with Blagnac, as soon as you had the opportunity. Finally, never having really disconnected can make the difference for the future …
It will serve me. Especially since this year, the link between the 7th and the XV was even stronger than in some years when I really did not have time to do both, because on the moments of individual preparations, we went to club. So, I practiced a little more at XV. More generally, I have always wanted to keep a club at XV. For me, it’s a balance. Finding my club and some girls, with whom I started, is important. It also allows me to release international pressure.
With the XV of France, expectations are different. Do you have any apprehensions?
Without doubt the fact of finding a group that I did not really know, even if we always know certain girls. The apprehension of reintegrating into a team when we are still used to being at most fifteen girls, on tournaments at 7. You have to take new habits.
Getting a place to go to play the World Cup is a hell of a challenge, which you want to try without pressure but probably with a lot of ambition …
Completely ! I tell myself that it is without pressure but whatever happens, I am still a competitor. Basically, I want to give the best to have my chance and represent France during the World Cup. It’s in a corner of my head but I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself to avoid being disappointed … even if I will probably be, if I am not on the trip.
You have played your last World Cup at XV in Ireland in 2017. Since then, quite a while. How have you changed as a sportsman?
Changed, no, but evolved, perhaps. I became aware of a lot of things. On the field, with the group, on life outside, on being with a collective often … I think that I have evolved sportingly on my technical capacities. I believe I have progressed in a lot of sectors, even if, necessarily, it is not perfect. I must also have my little gaps and my little flaws but ultimately, I think that the 7 changed me. Travels too, especially the one in Fiji where we spent five weeks … We realize a lot of things. We have a huge chance to have lived all this. It is not given everyone to be able to be under contract and live from their passion. Once we are aware of these things, we give the best every time because we say that life evolves, and that everything can stop overnight.
And as a woman?
I grew up. Especially on what I feel, on the way I approach things. I was a girl who questioned herself a lot when I played. I take things very at heart and I realized that it could make me sick. So, I learned to let go at times and take a step back. I sometimes forgot myself. Rugby is my daily life but I also have a life outside.
If you had to define your strengths and weaknesses, what would they be?
This question is too hard! (laughs). It might be my experience, which can be a force. Having lived important events, with two World Cups at 7, one in XV, a Grand Colem, a victory against the Blacks, the Olympic Games twice! This experience can be a source of motivation. On the weakness side … Even if it is something that sometimes helped me, I would say the questioning. I still ask myself too many questions, which means that there are moments when I will close on myself. In fact, I would have to let go even more often. I am aware but it is not always easy. I am very perfectionist and sometimes I find it difficult to admit that everything cannot be perfect.
