After taking the lead against the Bayonnais, the Girondins lacked accuracy and freshness to offer themselves a quiet end to the match.
He couldn’t hold back his anger, or at least his frustration. Louis Bielle-Biarrey kicked the ball hard to try to vent his rage. He had just escaped, certainly annihilating the action which should have definitively closed the debates, while his team led 27 to 20. A forward which symbolized the Gironde approximations this Saturday at Chaban-Delmas, where the men of Yannick Bru had been extremely efficient since the start of the season, converting almost all of their testing opportunities. This was not the case against Rowing due to unusual hand faults. Nine forwards were counted for the Bordelais, three times more than during the victory in Toulouse, or that against Racing 92.
Until now, the record for forwards had been set in Lyon with seven turnovers and this resulted in the only defeat of the season. Because, despite these small errors, the UBB managed to win at the end of the suspense. Fullback Romain Buros admitted that his team had certainly done things backwards: “Bayonne won the ruck war. It has been one of our strengths since the start of the season and it allows our game to move quickly but we were slowed down today. We also lost the collisions and we We wanted to play in defense without really winning the collisions. It worked against us because we lost a lot of balls behind these turnovers, we had to work to make up for the shots. […] We talked about being patient during the week, because we know that Rowing, even after being overwhelmed, manages to put pressure on the rucks that follow. I have two or three actions in mind where we manage to break and we do a ruck with the big guys before going into defense and without really putting our arms out, we try impossible passes. They are lost balloons and Bayonne likes them.”
A feat to digest
A lack of accuracy, connection, concentration which is not the trademark of this team, which had shown a certain maturity in recent weeks to string together performances despite the rotations desired by its staff. But coach Jean-Baptiste Poux was not fooled: “It was a difficult afternoon. We were narrow in our game. We knew we had to hold the ball well, increase the playing time and we wasted a lot of possessions. We scared ourselves by end of the match It’s difficult to remobilize after an exploit. (victory in Toulouse, 12-16). We were warned. But we put ourselves in danger a little by ourselves with our clumsiness.” It’s a booster shot without consequence for Maxime Lucu and his partners who also had a little heavy legs after a shortened week. It’s up to them to find the energy to receive Perpignan.
