Rugby (Pro D2): punished by Béziers, the SA XV once again came up against its glass ceiling

LThe SA XV had made the two receptions in Béziers then Dax in January the barometer of its possible ambitions. A week after a convincing victory in Biarritz, the temperature curve suddenly dropped (13-32) against a Biter team which gave a lesson in efficiency to the Angoumoisins and achieved an improved success which allows them to be the new runner-up of the leader Grenoble on the evening of this 17^e Pro D2 day.

This is the Angoumoisins' sixth defeat this season. This is as many as the third Provence, and only the Grenoblois have one less. Which testifies to their good performance and legitimizes this sixth place which they still occupy despite this heavy setback.

Six defeats therefore. Two against Béziers (2^e), one in Grenoble (1^is), one facing Brive (4^e), and one in Oyonnax, relegated from Top 14 including the current 9^e place does not bode well for his end-of-season ranking. We can take bets.

This is the sixth defeat for the SA XV this season and only leader Grenoble has one less.

If the sixth and last in September at Chanzy against the black beast that remains Stade Montois (13^e) can be attributed to a day without as (almost) all teams experience, a trend emerges: against Béziers as most often this season, the SA XV came up against its glass ceiling.

“Still under construction”

Everything but a coincidence, even if the Angoumoisins had started to reverse this trend last season by looking the big names of Pro D2 in the eyes: a victory against Provence, two against Brive, and even a high quality draw against the future promoted in Top 14 Vannes, in Chanzy.

But the results of this great first half of the season confirm that this glass ceiling is still relevant and it illustrates the path that still remains to be taken by “a team under construction”, as Alexandre Ruiz repeated Friday evening after the defeat.

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“The SA XV project is only 19 months old,” the Angoumois manager likes to remind the impatient. “We need to grow. I am convinced that this kind of performance will allow us to build on future deadlines. We’re going to use it.”

We will know if the Béterroise lesson has borne fruit with the next receptions in Grenoble on March 7, then Oyonnax on May 9. Even during the trip to Brive on February 7, since the Angoumoisins won in Corrèze last season. They remain the best away team in Pro D2 with 23 points (five wins, one draw and three defeats). It's now better than at Chanzy (20 points, 4 victories, a draw and three defeats)!

And if we still have to wait to see the SA maintenance”. Which seems to be very well underway with 26 points ahead of bottom-placed Nice, and 17 over the current play-off Valence/Romans.

In the top 5 on Friday in case of success on Dax

But humility and prudence do not prevent us from being ambitious, because beyond the setback against Béziers, the sixth place of the SA XV owes nothing to chance. He has proven so far that he has every legitimacy to aim for a place in the first half of the table, which would be a great first in his short existence.

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A status that will have to be confirmed against Dax next Friday in Chanzy on the occasion of a new clash between Top 6 teams since the Landais, heavily defeated in Colomiers on Friday (43-16), occupy fifth place with a point ahead of the SA XV. Dacquois where the Angoumoisins had won on the way out. As in Montauban (8th), after drawing at Colomiers (7th), their first two pursuers.

The Angoumoisins will therefore have the opportunity to move into the top 5 if successful. “The players set themselves a goal at the start of the block, we are still able to achieve it. It’s up to them to know what they want to do next week,” Alexandre Ruiz projected Friday evening.

Which requires an immediate reaction from his team. A term that horrifies the Angoumois manager, who repeated it again Friday evening: “I don’t like the reaction. I'm waiting for action. I find it hard to understand how we can react every time, after a while you get exhausted.”

Certainly. But in a championship as dense as the Pro D2 where achieving three wins in a row is almost a feat, there are only two kinds of teams that do not react: those who have a string of defeats, and those who lose the fewer matches.

For the moment, the SA XV is on the podium in the second category.

At SA XV, the exterior is dark

Friday evening in Chanzy, Béziers scrum-half and goalscorer Samuel Marques spent a good part of the warm-up kicking penalties from the edge of the touchline. Premonitory? Target ?
80 minutes later, his team had scored five tries. All in the corner. And if the third on interception owes mainly to Holder's anticipation and speed, the other four are the result of long constructed actions which ended up stretching and unbalancing the Angoumois defense.
A trademark of the ASBH whose full-back Lorre already has 13 tries. Winger Courtaud 8. The other winger Holder scored a hat-trick on Friday. From there to pointing out a weakness of the SA XV identified by its adversaries…