Montauban. Joe Snyman, USM coach: “The touch will be fine”

Joe Snyman after the poor performance on the sidelines, last Friday, in Béziersn which was largely the cause of the defeat at the Raoul-Barrière stadium, wants to be reassuring, on the eve of welcoming the only relegated from the Top 14, Oyonnax. Interview.

Montauban remains on a series of defeats where we could note a big deficiency in touch, what do you think?

There are periods when things go well. This was not the case in Béziers. We sometimes changed the number of players in touch and it must be said that the Héraultais defended well and countered us. It’s not a disaster. We are not going to reinvent the keys, just adapt certain attitudes. We will return to what we knew how to do at the start of the season. We were effective on carried balls. It’s not just failures. The only thing we know is that we were very bad last week but it will be fine.

So this doesn’t come from the instructions in this sector?

I give the players a lot of freedom to organize themselves. This should allow them to grow. What we are doing is not a copy and paste of what we did with Rouen which would make our alignment easier to counter. We missed a few announcements. We will rectify the situation. I don’t think this creates a big problem.

We note that your infirmary is filling up. What do you think?

We are entering the period of injuries, with the cold. I think the Christmas break comes at a really good time for us. This will allow us to recover players. 80% of the injured will be back for the next block. This is good news for us. Injuries are part of rugby, there is not a team that does not have injured people in its squad.

When will we see your team play a game in a dominant manner throughout the entire game?

We are working on this subject to improve our efficiency over 80 minutes. I know we are not moving towards the solution fast enough. To go harder, faster, further, you have to improve your control on the ground. A well-started match brings calm and relieves stress.

This Friday, at Sapiac, you welcome Oyonnax, a team far from the standard expected of a relegated player from the Top 14?

You don’t have to look at their ranking to get an idea of ​​their value. Even if they are in difficulty, they are not going to stay that way. It often happens that a relegated team struggles in the first part of the season before finishing very strongly. Oyonnax is very strong with very good players. It hurts my heart to lose to Sapiac. We experienced it against Angoulême. We will do everything to ensure that this does not happen again against a very big team with no weaknesses. We take match by match. We have things to rectify. If we are efficient we will stay at the top of the rankings. The pressure is always there whether you are ahead or behind in the standings.

It seems that there will be no arrival of a new scrum half after the departure of Yoan Cottin. What about it?

I coach the forwards, it’s not part of my expertise. This is the problem of the manager and the management. I haven’t heard of it.