Confessions coming straight from the Toulon locker room, while all of Mayol was rejoicing at Gaël Dréan’s new XXL performance against Racing 92 on Saturday, the latter was completely unaware that with his new double, he had just sat on the top step in the ranking of the best scorers in the Top 14. Tied with Bayonnais Sireli Maqala (10 tries each). “It’s a cool statistic, eh, but the one I prefer is knowing that we are 3rd in the Top 14, smiled the winger on Tuesday. Top scorer doesn’t mean much about me, but it says a lot about the team.”
And in particular that if they have long been no-go areas for the ball, the wings are now perfectly exploited by the RCT. “We play better, we score more, and the wingers benefit from it. Gabin [Villière] scored a double against Pau, “Seta” [Tuicuvu] also against Racing. It’s a general state of mind that makes us try more. Then, trust breeds trust…”
“I’m sick”
However, the good health of the Rouge et Noir collective does not in itself justify that the Breton has become one of the most efficient scoring machines in the championship. Author of doubles against La Rochelle, Pau and Racing, but also of a hat-trick against Bayonne and a dry try against Bordeaux, the 24-year-old winger has scored… every 67 minutes since the start of the season.
Enough to lead to a logical evolution of status within the locker room and in the eyes of opponents? “It’s not because I’ve completed three actions that I’ve changed my status or personality. I have goals and I’m good, that’s clear, but I’m still the same player, with the same faults and the need to work.”
Because if there is one strength in Gaël Dréan, apart from his legs which pedal at more than 36km/h (!), it is obviously this permanent hunger to learn. Well aware that by arriving from Fédérale 1 at the age of 21 (in the summer of 2022), he was going to have to work a little harder than any of his teammates to do well in the game. “If I have to say the points on which I have progressed over the past three years, it would take me ten minuteshe laughs. But if I had to pick just one, it’s probably about being as clean as possible and making as few mistakes as possible. That’s all I’ve been thinking about since I arrived.”
A contract that he managed to fulfill during his first two seasons in the harbor. Except that in striving to do everything well so as never to put the collective in difficulty, Gaël Dréan had probably forgotten what had been his strength until then: attack. “I came away frustrated from several matches at the start of the season. Well, especially the matches against Clermont and Racing, where I did not touch a single ball. From there, I promised myself to think more about attack, to be more incisive, to offer myself better.”
-To get out of a framework in which he locked himself, in short. “Even if I managed to be clean in defense and on my covers, I know that we expect a winger to score. So I had to hammer myself to be more inclined towards the attack, that I look for more shots. […] This doesn’t mean doing fewer chases or rucks, but doing them more intelligently.”to save energy and be more bloody during the offensive phases.
“I avoid listening to everything anyone says”
“Before, I unzoned four times, and it could be four times blank. Now I want to do it when it’s useful.”
Long reduced to his simple rocket status, Gaël Dréan has proven that he has learned, grown, to establish himself as one of the most reliable wingers in the Top 14. To the point of imagining that his constant progression will allow him , one day, to knock on the door of the XV of France? If the rumor becomes more and more pressing, the Lorient resident prefers to smile about it.
“I avoid listening to everything that anyone can say. Because if, tomorrow, I don’t score in three matches, people will no longer talk about me. I have probably gained in consistency, but I don’t have the feeling of being ten times better than last year So I don’t worry, I stay focused on Toulon, on what we are putting in place, on my personal development and if one day it should arise. to me… we’ll see!”
Whether his future is written in Blue or not, something nevertheless leaves us to think that Gaël Dréan has not yet reached his glass ceiling… And all of Toulon is delighted to see his Breton nugget pushing the limits. Again and again.
