OWe haven't seen Jonny May in the SA XV jersey since November 15 in Grenoble. Almost a month. He was out of the group for the Valence/Romans reception, then absent in Montauban last Friday, the day after the gala dinner organized at Twickenham in honor of his superb international career.
The English winger with 38 tries in 78 caps will finally put on his boots again Friday evening in Oyonnax (7:30 p.m.), where the Angoumoisins will challenge an “ogre” of the championship who has been on a diet since the start of the season. Fifteenth and barrage.
This will be “only” the eighth match in 14 days for the flagship recruit of the SA XV, whose arrival in Charente had the effect of a thunderclap in the world of Rugby last June. Since then, Jonny May is still finding his feet. Far from the performance we expected. Him first.
“It’s impossible to test every ball”
He made no secret of it on Wednesday at a press conference two days before his return match. And despite the presence at his side of the three-quarter coach Guillaume Laforgue who came to translate his words, he insisted on responding in French which was still hesitant, but which attests to his desire to accelerate his adaptation.
“When the guy speaks slowly, it’s easier. But when it’s Alex…”
“It’s very important for me to try to speak French,” he says. He works there daily. Even if it is “very difficult”. Even if you have to hang on to follow the machine-gun flow and decode the Béziers accent of his manager Alexandre Ruiz. “When the guy speaks slowly, it’s easier. But when it’s Alex…. Every morning it’s ‘ouaouaoua’,” he laughs, miming with his hand. “You have to translate me. »
The editorial team advises you
The Chanzy audience was hoping for wonders from Jonny May. Probably too much. “I know there's a lot of waiting, but it's impossible for me to test every ball,” he says, before rewinding the thread of his start to the season: “ I’m happy with the first block (of five matches), but the second was difficult.”
He offers explanations: “There were limited opportunities with the ball, but not just for me, for all the wingers. The offense wasn't good enough. » With an English expression to back it up: “Sometimes there are no buses, other times there are three at once”.
So the fall was complicated. “The first block I was very excited, but afterward I was very tired,” he continues. “There was the move, the baby. I got sick, the toxoplasmosis virus, plus a muscle glitch. And finally dinner. »
Angoulême, “a quiet little bubble”
This charity dinner, last Thursday at Twickenham, in the organization of which he had invested a lot and which was attended by the president of the SA XV Didier Pitcho, his partner Séverine, and the club director Antoine Roger.
The editorial team advises you
“I really appreciate their support and their presence,” he greets before slipping in a little English-style tackle, evoking the incredible contract that Didier Pitcho made the opener of the XV de la Rose Marcus Smith sign: “Drink a lot, and then get very excited!” »
The editorial team advises you
More serious: “They are very sociable and wherever they are there is kindness. » Because Jonny May does not regret for a second having joined Angoulême whose existence he did not even suspect six months ago. “The most important thing for me is that it is easy to access. May the return to England to the family be easy for my wife and the baby. »
As for the city itself: “It’s a quiet little bubble. The weather is better (than in England), I like the market on Sunday morning. The restaurants are very good, the food is good. Except the coffee which is disgusting! Except in Bordeaux, but an hour for a coffee…”
« It’s a new beginning »
Too bad. The main thing is elsewhere. On this field that he is preparing to return to on Friday evening in a Pro D2 championship which “pleasantly surprised” him, even if he makes a grimace at the mention of the refereeing.
It will be in Oyonnax, where he played in the fall of 2014 with Gloucester in the European Challenge. “It was after the tests with the England team. We had just played New Zealand. I had been bad! », laughs the Englishman who makes a point of remembering all his matches.
He hopes to perform much better there on Friday. “The last two weeks I didn't play but I'm thinking of playing the next two and I'm very excited about it,” he projects. “These are two big matches for me.”
Before returning “home” for the holidays, the time of the truce. A novelty that he particularly appreciates, when the English championship does not take place during this period.
“After Christmas, when I return, it will be easier for me. The house, the baby, I would have already made my transition… It’s a new beginning.”
A new beginning.
