“I force myself to do it”, the area on which Matthieu Jalibert has focused his work

Union Bordeaux-Bègles is not one of the teams in danger at the start of the Top 14. Even if the last victory against Aviron Bayonnais was a little complex to achieve (the Bordeaux residents can thank, once again, Matéo Garcia), UBB remains at the top of the ranking, tied on points with La Rochelle. The vice-champion of France honors his status.

Matthieu Jalibert will once again remain an essential player in Yannick Bru’s team this season (and, the club’s leaders hope, for subsequent seasons as well). If some internationals were able to be spared at the start of the season, the opener played all the matches and will start on Saturday, against Perpignan. And this year, the French international intends to accentuate his work in one area, even if it is not his favorite exercise: defense. He spoke about this in a pre-match press conference, as reported by our colleagues from Sud Ouest.

I want to progress every week and this is really one of the areas that I have targeted this year to improve and be even more efficient and effective for the team.

I’m not saying that it’s the thing that I enjoy the most but I force myself to do it to really be more and more effective even if I know that I will never be the biggest defender in the Top 14. I want to progress and I think there is progress in the matches. It’s positive to see that we are progressing well.

“Easier to run the game and distribute”

Back in shape after a hamstring injury at the end of the season, which impacted him in the Top 14 final against Toulouse, Matthieu Jalibert seems to be very motivated by the idea of ​​developing his game to progress a little more. There is this work on defense as he said, but the player is also developing his game as a fly half. A development made possible by the quality of the players around him, which he did not hesitate to emphasize to the media.

Maybe I attack the line a little less, I try more to manage the strong beats and the weak beats. And today, I am surrounded almost only by great players so it is also easier to control the game and distribute since, in each position, we have players capable of advancing and making the difference. Everyone has a very specific place in the group of games that we want to set up with the Christmas system (McNamara, ed) and for me as number 10 it’s much easier because we have big ball carriers up front and talented players at the back.