Top 14 – Report – At the heart of the new Lyon by Karim Ghezal before the reception in Toulouse

The Matmut Gerland has hardly changed in the last two weeks and the revelation on our site Rugbyrama of the arrival of Karim Ghezal at Lou’s bedside. Same place – still adorned this Wednesday with the trappings of the Challenge Cup – same staff, same sessions. And yet, clearly, a scent of novelty obviously inherent to the arrival of the former Stade Français coach, returned to “his” Lyon lands, determined to take up the challenge that has been set for him. “I still lived in Lyon, but I didn’t come back often, and I found a club which has enormously improved its structures since my departure in 2019, smiled the former “Monsieur Touche” of the XV of France. But the most important thing is the terrain. That’s what I told the players: everything that happens around, of course it counts and it’s important, but it only has value if the pitch also follows…” An obvious fact that the Lyon club has undoubtedly sometimes forgotten, having fallen into a form of purring since the departure with losses and crashes of Xavier Garbajosa. “Rugby remains a sport where you have to be respected, assume Ghezal. What does it mean to become a respected team again when you are at Lou? First of all, it’s not playing for the last three places, as has been the case for two seasons. The central point of the project is to be linked to each other and that’s why I only committed for six months: it’s because I want to be in the same boat as the guys. We are linked to each other, we are dependent on each other, we are responsible for the career of the guy next to us. We are linked by the force of circumstances, and we have the six months remaining to ensure that the club remains where it should be.

And what better setting, for this great first in the Top 14 of the Ghezal era, than a Gerland filled to the brim to welcome the French and European champion from Toulouse? It’s hard to imagine, really, even though the big gap that awaits the Lyonnais after their last Challenge match in front of 1,300 people at the Sergio-Lanfranchi stadium in Parma is enough to make one dizzy… “Respect must be earned anywhere, anytime, that’s what Fabien Galthié hammered home when we took over the French team. Whether in Parma, in a match that wasn’t even televised, or here, in front of 30,000 people, it doesn’t change anything. The arena can change, the pitch remains the same.

“After Toulouse and Racing, we will only be halfway through the season”

And the men too, even though Karim Ghezal should for this first big test rely on the men he got to know well between his last stint at Lou and the French team, like the internationals Dylan Cretin and Kilian Geraci came out of winter, or even captain Baptiste Couilloud who returned just in time from his elbow sprain. “I rely on everyone, essentially going through the executives and trying to get to the essentials, summarizes Ghezal. What I noticed is that the group is full of quality players, with French and foreign internationals, as well as young players with high potential, supported by quality staff. Today, the goal is for them all to be able to perform at 100% of their level.”

A stated objective which necessarily refers, implicitly, to the weaknesses noted by the new coach. “When you are in the bottom three, it means that all the players are not playing at their best level, assume Ghezal. From what I noticed on the pitch, there is a lot of energy and individual quality. What I try to bring is to adapt these qualities to the context of the match. I took a very simple example from this weekend: in Parma, in the 50th minute, it was 12-7 for them, and one of our players started to play a hand penalty, as if we were going to lose and that was the last action. No one was connected to him, because he didn’t take context into account. There were 30 minutes left to go up five points, there was nothing. And from there, I drew the parallel with our season.” For a comparison that makes sense. “After Toulouse and Racing, that is to say in two weeks, we will simply be at half-time of the season. Of course, we are behind for the moment, but we are not behind in the score. Me , it’s as if I had watched the start of the match on TV and put on my jogging pants in the 35th minute, to try to contribute something while the match was underway, but far from over. two halves in a match, then it is not necessary Don’t panic.” Even if the adversary who is looming would be enough to make you shudder… “There have been a lot of meetings that have taken place in Gerland in recent days, where there has been a lot of talk about Toulouse hegemony, concluded Ghezal. But they, in fact, have earned respect on the ground. The last Top 14 final was played after 35 minutes. Ditto for their last two European Cup matches. I sincerely think that if Toulouse played the 6 Nations Tournament, they would do grand slams. I recently read that in their eyes, the Stadium was the lions’ cage. So it’s up to us to enter the cage and fight.” And to find the soul of a beast.