Joseph Carrère, born on February 14, 1904, in Sigean (Aude) and died on October 19, 1954, in Mably (Loire), was a rugby union and rugby league player, and a French international for the latter, playing as scrum-half or third row in the 1920s and 1930s.
Joseph Carrère played for many seasons with R.C. Narbonne, where he proved to be one of the best scrum-halves in France, reaching the semi-finals of the French Championship in 1925 against future champions U.S. Perpignan. Urgently called up to the French rugby union team in 1928 to face Ireland, he was unable to honor his selection due to a delay in transport to the squad's pre-departure meeting in Belfast. In 1930, he took part in the birth of U.S. Narbonne, which joined the Union française de rugby amateur and merged with R.C. Narbonne in 1932. However, the French Rugby Federation (F.F.R. by its acronym in French) in XV decided to ban Carrère, like Robert Samatan, Richard Majérus, and Charles Bigot, when he applied for a transfer between the two Narbonne clubs. It took J. Carrère over a year to learn the reason for his disbarment, which was pretexted by a link with a refereeing case, but he understood that one of the members of the Federation's Disciplinary Committee, a Stade Toulousain manager, wanted to take revenge for not signing for his club in 1932.
When the neo-code of rugby arrived, rugby à XIII, imported by Jean Galia, Carrère was one of the first players to join this movement, denouncing the amateurism of brown rugby in XV, and he took part in the Pionniers tour in March 1934. One of the stars of the French Rugby XIII Championship, he spent four seasons with R.C. Roanne, winning the Coupe de France in 1938, before returning to R.C. Narbonne in 1938, a club that had just joined XIII Rugby. World War II broke out and XIII Rugby was quickly banned, putting an end to his sporting career.
Biography
Youth and beginnings in XV rugby in Aude Joseph Albert Carrère was born on February 14, 1904, in Sigean. His father, Frédéric Carrère (born April 27, 1877, in Sigean, died October 20, 1948, in Port-la-Nouvelle), was a farmer, and his mother, Thérézine Abellano (born October 17, 1882, in Durban-Corbières, died January 5, 1947, in Port-la-Nouvelle), had no occupation. He married Jeanne Roussoux on November 5, 1923, at the Sigean town hall. He had a brother, Auguste (1906-?), and two sisters, Paule (1908–1985) and Ivette (1920–2013). In civilian life, Joseph Carrère works as a garage mechanic. He played his first years of rugby with R.C. Narbonne.
1924-1930: A key player for R.C. Narbonne
1924-1926: A versatile and successful player Born in Sigean, Joseph Carrère trained with R.C. Narbonne, a club located in the neighboring town of Narbonne. In the 1924–1925 season, he joined the club's second team before being given a chance at scrum-half due to the injury of the incumbent Lafont. He played alongside François Clauzel and Aimé Cassayet-Armagnac, among others, and the Narbonne team came very close to qualifying for their Championship final but were defeated in the semi-final by the eventual winners, Roger Ramis' U.S. Perpignan 13–5, J. Carrère having, according to the leading sports daily l'Auto, “proved equal to the task”.
Joseph Carrère became a regular player with R.C. Narbonne from the 1925–1926 season, where he alternated between scrum-half and third-row center. R.C. Narbonne became a title contender every season. In the 1925–1926 season, they eliminated C.A. Brive and Stade Châteaurenardais in the pool of three but were eliminated in the quarter-final pool by Aviron Bayonnais. J. Carrère makes a name for himself and is selected as scrum-half at the end of the season for the Languedoc committee team which plays against the Paris selection.
J. Carrère's talent led to offers from other clubs during the 1926 off-season, to the extent that he was rumored to be heading for U.S. Perpignan (runners-up in the French Championship), but he remained with R.C. Narbonne, strengthened by the arrival of Joseph Pascot and a remarkable sporting partnership, where he put in some fine performances. The Narbonne club emerged from the five-team pool ahead of U.S. Montauban and Aviron Bayonnais, and beat F.C. Lourdes in the play-off, with only U.S. Cognac ahead of them, although this did not prevent them from continuing their Championship run. In the four-team pool, however, R.C. Narbonne was eliminated 10–8 by Stade Français, preventing it from reaching the semi-finals of the Championship.
1927-1928: Misadventure on the doorstep of the French team During the 1927–1928 season, Joseph Carrère's name was called by the sporting press and the Languedoc committee to give him a chance in the French team. A benchmark third-row player, he also had the advantage of being able to play as a scrum-half. He was called up to the end-of-year pre-selection meetings in Cognac for the French national team, tested in the scrum-half position and is now on the list of replacements for this season in the event of the scrum-half's defection. At the end of January 1928, Clément Dupont (F.C. Lourdes), France's usual starting scrum-half, withdrew from the team, and Georges Daudignon (Stade français) was about to undergo surgery and was unable to take part in the match against Ireland in the Five Nations Tournament; the French Rugby XV Federation decided to call up Joseph Carrère as a matter of urgency to line up at scrum-half. A telegram was sent to Narbonne asking J. Carrère to join the French team in Paris before departing for Belfast. Taking the first train from Narbonne to Lyon, he was delayed in his journey for over five hours and arrived at the Federation too late to join the French team, which had left for London before heading for Ireland.
In the Championship, R.C. Narbonne was quickly eliminated. Although ahead of C.S. Palmiers and Stadoceste Tarbais in the five-team pool, they faced R.C. Toulon in the play-off. They lost the match 15-0 and were unable to progress to the next phase of the four-team pool.
1928–1930: Pushed towards the exit
In September 1928, he began his fifth season with R.C. Narbonne. Although he performed well at the start of the season, he suffered a scare in the match against A.S. Béziers on December 9, 1928. Fifteen minutes from the end of a scoreless game, Joseph Carrère received a blow and lay unconscious on the pitch. His brother, a team-mate, and all the players gave him first aid, while the crowd invaded the field. Although he regained his senses, the referee and the directors of both clubs decided to end the match immediately and postpone it to another date. In January 1929, he was back on the pitch as a key player for R.C. Narbonne. In a five-team pool made up of U.S. Dax, U.A Libourne, U.S.A. Limoges and U.S. Fumel, the club managed to qualify for the next phase, known as the "three-team pool". Facing R.C. Toulon and Stade Toulousain, R.C. Narbonne was eliminated after failing to qualify for the quarter-finals.
The following season, 1929–1930, R.C. Narbonne renewed a large part of its squad, with Joseph Carrère, Joseph Choy, Esquine, and Canguilhem representing the older players. J. Carrère occupied various positions such as center, without any real success, before returning to the positions of scrum-half or third row. The club qualified from a five-team pool comprising Aviron Bayonnais, Stade Bordelais, F.C. Grenoble, and Toulouse O.E.C. In the three-team pool, the Audon-based club was dominated by Stadoceste Tarbais and failed to qualify for the quarter-finals.
1930-1932: Departure for U.S. Narbonne and the French Amateur Rugby Union In August 1930, Joseph Carrère joined Narbonne's other local club, U.S. Narbonne. In September 1930, the club, led by former F.C. Lézignan player Louis Bès, joined the Union française de rugby amateur, a sports organization grouping together several dissident XV rugby clubs, previously members of the French Rugby Federation in XV. J. Carrère shone under his new colors, as he did against Maurice Porra's F.C. Lyon and tried his hand at full-back. In December, twelve members of the U.F.R.A. resigned from the French Rugby XV Federation, confirming that they would not be taking part in the French Championship and launching the Tournoi des Douze at the same time. U.S. Narbonne, absent from the Tournoi des Douze, thus played a season of friendly matches against these twelve teams. In February 1931, Joseph Carrère put in some fine performances, representing the U.F.R.A.'s North-East selection in a propaganda match against a South-Western side, at scrum-half, where he was regarded as one of the best French players; he was “sparkling” according to the sporting press. He also played a few friendly matches for Stade Toulousain at the end of the season.
The 1931–1932 season saw U.S. Narbonne finally enter the U.F.R.A. Championship, known as the Tournoi des Quatorze. J. Carrère continued to steer Narbonne's game with great success. U.S. Narbonne had a decent season in this championship, finishing sixth in the standings. J. Carrère is regularly cited as one of the key players in this squad despite an expulsion in December 1931 that suspended him for two matches. In February 1932, he remained one of U.F.R.A's star performers in selection matches, where he shone alongside Carcassonne's Albert Domec.
1932-1934: The “Carrère affair”, disbarred for more than a year For the 1932–1933 season, U.F.R.A. returned to the French Rugby Federation. As a result, U.S. Narbonne merged with R.C. Narbonne, and their membership was to merge as well. Joseph Carrère then asked to be reinstated in the latter club, but in September 1932 the Disciplinary Board of the Fédération Française de Rugby à XV arbitrarily banned him from being registered, which meant that he was forbidden to play rugby à XV. J. Carrère is not the only one mentioned, as there are also Robert Samatan, Richard Majérus, and Charles Bigot. The reasons for J. Carrère's disbarment were not initially known to either the player or the R.C. Narbonne management, the latter declaring that he was greatly surprised by the decision. A month later, in mid-October 1932, Narbonne's directors contacted the Federation to find out why the player had been struck off and discovered that the reason had nothing to do with professionalism, but rather with a match a year earlier, when J. Carrère was reported to have insulted a referee while playing under the aegis of the U.F.R.A.
A year later, in November 1933, Joseph Carrère, having received no news of his request to be reinstated at R.C. Narbonne, this time applied for qualification for U.S. Nouvelloise, specifying that he would not play any matches with any other club, in the hope that his situation would improve. The Languedoc committee granted J. Carrère's license, but came under pressure from the Federation's disciplinary committee, which left it responsible for this choice, stipulating that J. Carrère could only be requalified with R.C. Narbonne: thus, if the license was upheld, the disciplinary committee would sanction the Languedoc committee, as it alone could validate a transfer request, in this case from R.C. Narbonne to E.S. Nouvelloise. Faced with this threat, the Languedoc committee reversed its decision concerning J. Carrère and withdrew his license.
Finally, on December 2, 1933, the Disciplinary Committee of the French Rugby Federation in XV granted J. Carrère's license, as he had undertaken to create the E.S. Nouvelloise club and not to play for any other club, even if the club disappeared.
1934: end of the rugby à XV chapter and Pionnier du rugby à XIII in France
The Pioneer Tour