After its victory in Cesson, a week ago, USAM Nîmes Gard had to confirm at home. Missed for the Green Team, beaten 29-33 by Saint Raphaël. Julien Rebichon's partners suffered an eighth defeat this season. A defeat, combined with the victory of Créteil, which places the Nîmes in a relegation position.
Saint Raphaël is a team comfortable away from its bases. USAM Nîmes was notified. The Varois won in Toulouse, Aix and Chambéry. Only Nantes and Montpellier brought down the partners of Raphaël Caucheteux, honored by president David Tebib before the match, to salute an immense career which will end at the end of this season. And the first thirty minutes of the first act of this match clearly showed that the Varois had not come to Gard to make up the numbers. The teammates of Alexandre Demaille, the former Green Men, were almost in the lead throughout the first period. And the USAM in all this? A little more comfortable offensively than a month ago, like Yoann Gibelin, who seems more and more to find his feet in David Degouy's team. Unfortunately, the Nîmes once again suffered defensively, notably with only five goalkeeper saves, three for Sé and two for Pardin, while Demaille alone had seven. After a mano a mano during the first fifteen minutes, USAM let the Varois escape on the scoreboard, Saint Raphaël having a four-goal lead in the 28th minute. But a nice reaction, at the very end of the first period, brought the Usamists down to two units after thirty minutes.
The appearance of the game hardly changed upon returning from the locker room. USAM was chasing a score that fluctuated between two and four goals, without ever being able to realize the balls to get back to a goal. No matter how hard Parnassus pushed his protégés, nothing worked. Even fate got involved with in particular these two 7m jets stopped by the Nîmes goalkeepers but which fell…in the hands of Caucheteux, who did not ask for so much. The Green Men were still missing opportunities to come back and by messing up too much, USAM left the victory to the Varois…under a few whistles from the stands. Saint Raphaël finally won 29-33.
David Degouy’s reaction: “There isThe disappointment this evening. There were good things with a committed group. Unfortunately, we had some individual failures. We were in our game plan. Our mistakes cost us dearly. We tensed up and as a result, we were less ambitious. We could do much better. You have to understand that there are new players who didn't play last year. We are rebuilding and it takes time. We need the Nîmes fervor, it does the group good. I understand the public's disappointment but everything counts. We are moving forward and we are going to get the Occitan derby against Toulouse“.
USAM Nîmes Gard : Pardin (5 saves), Sé (5 saves) – Poyet, Peyre, Derisbourg (1 goal), Rebichon, Gibelin (2 goals), Konradsson (4 goals), Vincent (2 goals), Kamtchop-Baril (3 goals) , Gibernon (2 goals), Tobie (2 goals), Acquevillo (6 goals), Kaczor (2 goals), Sanad (5 goals)
