This Saturday evening, Union Bordeaux-Bègles defeated Castres (3-13) at the end of a locked match.
Tops
An all-terrain Bordeaux
It's the kind of match that demonstrates Bordeaux's constant evolution, year after year. While they traveled without many executives (Lucu, Jalibert, Bielle-Biarrey or even Buros), Yannick Bru's men left Castres with a precious success which allowed them to regain first place in the Top 14. With a game plan recited to the letter, a battle of occupation won with the help of precise footwork and incredible efficiency materialized by Yoram Moefana's opportunistic try just before half-time, Damian Penaud and his team show that they are now capable of winning important matches in the heart of winter. Yannick Bru announced it at the start of the season, we must finish in the top two at all costs, and that necessarily requires this kind of performance.
An iron defense
Indeed, the Bordeaux back line, usually so exceptional, did not show up this evening. If there were many errors in attack, it was in another register that the Bordelais stood out this evening. With 120 tackles and 91% success in this sector, the Unionists were quite simply intractable in defense. Tevita Tatafu (13), Mahamadou Diaby (12) and Temo Matiu (11) all finished the game with more than ten tackles. An iron defense which left the Castres without solution during the entire meeting. Only 3 points conceded by the Bordelais this evening at Pierre-Fabre, who are full of confidence before playing their last home match next week.
Lesgourgues metronome
Often criticized in recent years, Yann Lesgourgues held his place against Castres this evening. Established in the absence of captain Maxime Lucu, the scrum-half had a lot to do, and he did it. Author of a great breakthrough in the first period, Lesgourgues especially distinguished himself in his management of the match. Very good on the feet, excellent in animation and author of very few errors, the Frenchman never overdid it and knew how to perfectly manage the very difficult conditions which surrounded the meeting. If Bordeaux's collective performance was remarkable, we can therefore note the solid performance of the Unionist scrum-half, which shows that the UBB can now deal with strong players in each position.
Flops
Castres is no longer invincible
This is the big news of the evening: after ten successes in a row in all competitions at home, the Castres series ended this Saturday against Union Bordeaux Bègles. And in what way. The Tarnais certainly had the worst match of their season against the Unionists, scoring only three small points in 80 minutes. Very uninspired, the Castres had difficulty putting their game in place and accumulated technical faults during the meeting, obviously hampered by the pouring rain which fell on Pierre-Fabre. But is that an excuse? They never found the fault in an existing Bordeaux defense. Mathieu Babillot's teammates were left with a heavy defeat against Clermont three weeks ago, and it is not this poor performance that will reassure the heads of Castres.
The Castres openers had their heads upside down
In such a tight match, we certainly needed a good flyhalf to win. If the Bordelais Carbery produced a solid performance, helped, it must be said, by his scrum half in the evening, the Castres openers missed their point. The holder Louis Le Brun first missed three penalties well within his ropes, (therefore leaving 9 crucial points on the way), while having an innocuous match in the game. And it was then Pierre Popelin who replaced him at a quarter of an hour from the end, without much change in the Tarn game. The second Castres opener of the evening also did little to his advantage by also being imprecise, with a direct candle for one of his first balls. A match to forget for the two number 10s.
The terrible conditions
Obviously, we had to talk about it. From the first to the last minute of play, torrential rain fell on Pierre-Fabre, making the match conditions very difficult. And these are not the statistics that will make us lie. 33 lost balls and around ten forwards during the 80 minutes of play. While the two teams have offered an attractive game since the start of the season, it was a mush of rugby that was offered to us this evening. So obviously, we had to refocus on a more restrictive game, one-pass sequences and a strong use of kicking.
