This weekend on The Lisa Burke Show, rugby takes centre stage as Rugby Club Luxembourg (RCL) prepares to welcome a combined Oxford-Cambridge ‘Oxbridge’ team to Stade Josy Barthel for what is believed to be their first ever visit to the Grand Duchy. Seniors player and schools rugby coordinator Matthew Dennis Soto explains that the fixture offers a perfect mid‑season test for RCL, while also reconnecting him with university teammates from his PGCE days at Oxford, in a match he jokes might even mark a “secret retirement” at 80 minutes. The game also plugs Luxembourg directly into one of the sport’s oldest traditions: the varsity rugby culture that has produced generations of international players since the first iconic Oxbridge match in 1872.
On the show, Matthew explains how the Oxford and Cambridge system has historically functioned as an informal England trial, with selectors once taking 15 to 20 players from a single varsity match into national squads. Today, professional academies have taken over much of that role, but the commitment remains close to professional standards: double daily training sessions, gym and pitch work, video analysis and eight hours of study woven through the day.
That intensity, he argues, leaves graduates ready for both professional rugby and demanding careers beyond sport, thanks to a culture where ‘buy‑in’ is non‑negotiable and no one can simply skip training because they are tired. RCL’s aim is to build that ethos, with more Luxembourgish now spoken at training than English or French, and a growing number of locally raised players feeding into the national team.
Vice President Tony Whiteman sketches the remarkable growth of RCL, founded in 1973 and now boasting around 500 active members encompassing players, referees and coaches, making it one of Luxembourg’s largest sporting organisations. The club currently represents 54 nationalities and competes in Germany’s First Division, a notable achievement for a country of Luxembourg’s size and a testament to decades of volunteer‑driven development.
Tony’s own story mirrors that journey: arriving from New Zealand “for 18 months” to play rugby, finding community in the legendary Irish pub The Black Stuff, and staying to build a life, a family and a career, helped along by a network of club members who even opened professional doors in finance. And he has done the same for so many more.
A recurring theme of the discussion is rugby’s unique capacity to create belonging across ages, body types and backgrounds. Nathan Sneyd, now a familiar voice from Let’s Talk Sport and a long‑standing squash coach in Luxembourg, describes rugby as a “jigsaw of athletes”, where fast and slow, tall and short, heavy and light all fit together in different positions toward a shared objective.
That sense of purpose and identity, symbolised by a simple shirt colour, translates into powerful benefits for mental health and social integration, especially for newcomers who might otherwise dismiss Luxembourg as ‘quiet’ if they never join a club or community. Tony highlights rugby’s thread of decency: respect for referees, listening to coaches, learning discipline from adults outside the family, as a life school that employers value, noting that his own first job in Luxembourg came precisely because a manager trusted the work ethic of sportspeople.
Looking ahead, the guests agree that women’s rugby represents one of the biggest growth opportunities, both globally and at RCL. The club has established a women’s section with regular training, and women’s rugby is cited as one of the fastest‑growing areas of the sport, yet limited pitch space in Luxembourg City is now a hard constraint on how far that momentum can go. As Director of Rugby Antoine Alric (who could not join the recording) works across elite competition, 350‑plus youth players and an expanding women’s programme, the club is lobbying for at least half a pitch more in the short term and, eventually, a second ground to match demand.
For listeners inspired to get involved, Nathan underlines how approachable Luxembourg’s sporting community is: from elite racer Dylan Pereira inviting Instagram messages from aspiring drivers to RCL’s own open‑door culture, often the first step is as simple as showing up or sending a message, and letting the game, and the community around it, do the rest.
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