Racing 92 will not have had too much time to ruminate on its defeat against Stade Français because now, it is the French champion (and current leader of the championship) that we must prepare to face. And given the performance of the players during the derby, Dimitri Szarzewski did not hide a certain worry at the idea of facing Toulouse: “if we take 40 points against Stade Français, without disrespect to them, what will it be against Toulouse?“
“Having players who do not accept losing”
A reaction from the players is therefore expected from the staff, who remain quite bitter after this setback to Jean Bouin. Frédéric Michalak, present at a press conference this week, did not hesitate to single out his players quite strongly for their lack of fighting spirit and a certain defect in a precious notion in a group: leadership.
We lack leadership. It's mental. We have to assume certain periods of matches. We still see too many players who, in terms of their body language, give up a little quickly (…) We are working on that, on leadership, on the mental part. We really need to have players who don't accept losing so quickly.
Racing 92 had to do without its internationals. And it seems that without Gaël Fickou, Nolann Le Garrec or Will Rowlands, the Ciel et Blanc are lacking strong men to lead the team on the right path. And this lack of leadership pointed out by Michalak, certain players are also well aware of it, like Cameron Woki: “At Jean Bouin, Henry Chavancy did his best to raise heads. Unfortunately, he was a bit alone in this case and that is why this week, we are talking a lot about leadership.”
To summarize
Racing 92 will not have had much time to ruminate on its defeat against Stade Français because now, it is the French champion that we must prepare to face. And against the Rouge et Noir, the Ciel et Blanc had to work on a big gap, which is glaring according to Frédéric Michalak: leadership.
