Among the five reserves retained by the staff of the XV of France for this Friday evening's match (9:10 p.m.) against Argentina, two play at UBB. If the League announced on Wednesday that the Top 14 clubs concerned will not be able to use their players this weekend, the decision is seen as “surreal” by the Bordeaux staff.
Union Bordeaux Bègles will challenge Vannes without its captain or vice-captain. Not on the match sheet with the XV of France to face Argentina, this Friday evening (9:10 p.m.) at the Stade de France, Maxime Lucu and Maxime Lamothe were kept as reserves and will enter the 23 French, in the event of glitch before the meeting.
There are five reservists in total who remained in Marcoussis, also including Régis Montagne (Clermont), Grégory Alldritt (La Rochelle) and Léo Berdeu (Lyon). And on Wednesday, the National Rugby League (NRL) made a decision. In conjunction with the French Rugby Federation (FFR), “28 players will be retained by the FFR (at the choice of the French team coach) until Sunday”, during international match weeks. If this time, the three clubs mentioned above find themselves impacted by this new measure, Bordeaux is the club which suffers the most with two absences.
The UBB, which hoped to have its French reservists Lucu and Lamothe available to face Vannes on Saturday, the day after the Blues' match against Argentina, is having a hard time with the League's decision, which it considers “a little surreal” . To justify itself, the LNR pointed out the risk of “inequity between the clubs concerned” which would not all be able to field the reserve players, due to “the scheduling schedule of the Top 14 match during the weekend”, on which the clubs have no hold.
La Rochelle, Lyon and Clermont will play on Saturday at 4:30 p.m., UBB at 9:05 p.m. in Vannes.
The argument made the UBB jump. “I find it a bit strong to talk about a lack of fairness knowing that we are heavily impacted by these duplicates which are a particularity of French rugby,” Girondin coach Christophe Laussucq declared at a press conference. Of the 23 French players who will face the Pumas, three play at UBB: Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Yoram Moefana and Marko Gazzotti.
“The problem of fairness is flouted every year in French rugby,” continued the technician. “There, there was a possibility of eliminating this lack of fairness and the opposite is happening, and clubs are daring to complain. It's a bit like the world is turned upside down. We just don't have no right to play our players, who are employees with us while the French team has released them I find it a bit surreal, obviously we are angry and obviously there are clubs who have put pressure. on the LNR, which has visibly suffered this pressure. How does playing Max Lucu and Max Lamothe (in Vannes) penalize the French team?
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