the essential
Against US Dax, today (9 p.m.) at the Armandie stadium, Romain Darchen will be lined up at the back of SU Agen. Starting for the second time this season, Sporting’s number 15 is expecting an intense match against a team known for being very playful. Interview.
You haven’t played much since the start of the season and, as soon as you are lined up, you perform quite well. Is there frustration in your current situation?
Romain Darchen: It’s not frustrating. I’m still young and I don’t want to rush. I also don’t want to worry about the compositions that are lined up every weekend. There, we only made one block. There have been five games and no number 1 back has broken away. There were three of us playing at the back. When I have the chance to play, I give 100%. Against Dax, it’s a new opportunity for me. So, I’m going to have to be all in.
How do you explain the irregularity of the SUA at the start of the season?
Although I didn’t play the matches, I worked every week as close as possible to the group. Obviously, we see the points on which we have to work. Because we work very well in training, but we know that the hardest part is to reproduce it in matches. We always want to send games to Armandie, particularly to please the public. But it also involves efficiency. Against Nice, we had a catastrophic match, but we got into their 22 meters a lot. What we don’t do is score. So we have to be more efficient. We also need to progress in our game to be as efficient as possible and get closer to our goal for the end of the season.
“Dax represents a little bit of the desire we have to play like they do”
Dax is coming off a successful season and is off to a good start. Are you looking forward to this meeting?
Not the easiest match against Dax. But today in Pro D2, there are only big teams. And Dax is one of them. If we want to achieve our goal at the end of the season, we have to win against the big teams. And in Armandie, we have to win our matches. This means playing hard and being efficient.
US Dax has a reputation for playing a lot of games. As a three-quarterback, how are you going to approach this match?
We expect them to produce what they showed last season and in friendly matches. We expect the playful team they are. We know that it can play from any place on the pitch. Dax represents a bit of the desire we have to play like they do. We are expecting a big game, with a lot of play. We will run a lot and try to impose our rhythm. We must not let them play and show that we are in place from the start of the match.
In the SU Agen game, did you notice any progress during this first block?
We see progression because there was change in the offseason. We weren’t starting from scratch because some of the staff stayed, but there were a lot of changes, especially in the ideas. Obviously, we need a little time, but with each training, we improve and we are better and better at the level of the game. And then, it is to reproduce what we do in training in matches . Every game is an opportunity to show what we do in training. In our progress in terms of the game, we feel good.
What is your goal this season?
Our goal is to finish in the top six and therefore secure the final stages. It’s to please the public. What we want is to bring people back to the stadium.
