After two days, Stade Français, the best defense of last season, has already conceded ten tries. Is this serious, Dr. Gustard?
It goes without saying that Laurent Labit and Karim Ghezal, who have been in charge of Stade Français for less than a year, have had a successful first season at the helm of the capital club, putting the pink soldiers back in the highest echelons of the single group and reviving at Jean-Bouin a fashion of “closed ticket offices” that had disappeared for ages. So, have we expected too much from the Parisians at the end of the 2023-2024 season? And why are they taking so long, at the start of this season, to confirm the hopes born from their last few months of competition? Obviously, Stade Français’ first two league outings were not exactly crazy and, spanked by Union Bordeaux-Bègles on the first day, Hans-Peter Wild’s club then suffered a thousand deaths against Vannes, at home.
So much so that worries are already looming at the Porte de Saint-Cloud: in the front row, Paul-Alo Emile (right shoulder), Sergo Abramishvili (left shoulder) and Giorgi Melikidze (hamstring) are all unavailable for several weeks, these absences undermining the usual solidity of the Parisian edifice in the closed scrum. Last week, against Vannes, Hugo N’Diaye and Clément Castets generally did the job, without reassuring their staff. This weekend, Moses Alo-Emile and Francisco Gomez Kodela, back in the major XV, should therefore give more density to the Parisian scrum. Whatever their current worries at the position, the Parisian leaders had still not activated the option of a medical joker or that of an additional player at the start of the week. On the Lou side, the French international Sébastien Taofifenua really wants to go and see elsewhere (he will be Catalan next year) but his immediate release would cost too much today for the pink leaders walking on a tightrope, in terms of managing their payroll…
The worst defense in the Top 14
Beyond the problems encountered in the front line, it is in defense that the pink soldiers no longer know which way to turn. If last year, Paul Gabrillagues’ teammates had thus finished the season with the most efficient wall in the single group (49 tries conceded at the end of the regular phase), the harrow developed by the Englishman Paul Gustard has since taken a hit: in just two days, the Parisians have in fact conceded 77 points and 10 tries, a terrible ratio making the pink soldiers the worst defense in the championship, tied with the promoted Vannes. How can we explain such feverishness in a sector that was so strong until then? And can the absence, during the first two days, of the boss of the Parisian defense (the South African Jeremy Ward will be back against the RCT) alone explain this failure? The fact remains that on Sunday, the Parisians, 29 and 27 missed tackles in their last two matches, have an interest in plugging the leaks, if they wish to survive the vendetta launched against them by the Varois…
