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It was great to welcome players from both Orleans and
Portadown RFC last Friday for a tour of Kingspan Stadium
and The Nevin Spence Centre.
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ORLEANS RFC VISIT
ORLEANS RFC VISIT KINGSPAN STADIUM
The Nevin Spence Centre welcomed its first overseas visitors from French club
Orleans RFC on Friday 28th August 2015. They have been visiting the province
every two years in a tradition stemming back to World War II.
The story goes... During WWII a bomber was shot
down over France and landed in a marsh area. The
airmen were all killed, one of which was a gunner
named Marks from Portadown...
The local resistance recovered the bodies and
buried them in the local churchyard. Unfortunately
they were caught and were executed. Many years
later a memorial service was held in the same
churchyard in France and was attended by the
brother of the gunner named Marks, his name was
John Marks, and he happened to be President
of Portadown Rugby Club at the time. During
the service he got talking to a man called Daniel
Mallard whose brother was one of the resistance
fighters being remembered at the same service
and who at the time was very much involved in
Orléans Rugby Club in France. (www.rcorleans.
com)
As usual, rugby men seem to migrate towards one
another and after some conversation they decided
that a team from Orleans would come to play in
Portadown. They did, and so the tradition was
born.
Both the ‘originals’ are unfortunately no longer with
us, but ever since, a team from Portadown travel to
Orleans every other year to play the return fixture
to play for ‘La Cup de L’amité’ or ‘The Friendship
Cup’, presented many years ago by John Marks.
The role of the cup is to ensure that all old and
new friendships are set aside for 80 minutes each
year, to be vigorously reinstated afterwards over
a few Guinness or Vin Rouge, depending on the
nationality of the hosts for that particular match!