Top 14. Report. How Rowing Bayonnais ended the curse of Anoeta

The curse has ended. Finally. Beaten, at Anoeta, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques duel in 2023 (20-30), then humiliated by the RCT in “prime-time” last season (10-46), Rowing Bayonnais crushed Stade Rochelais this Saturday afternoon (37-07), and for the first time in a long time, “the wings” resonated, at the final whistle, in the enclosure usually occupied by Real Sociedad footballers. “Victory is what we have been looking for for three years. The first two matches did not smile on us. There, we wanted to offer that to our supporters, we wanted to find the taste of victory here. The offensive bonus? It’s the icing on the cake, it’s the sign that we had a very good match throughout the 80 minutes”, analyzed number nine Maxime Machenaud after the game.

The choice of sobriety

The team of Bayonne won, because it suffocated La Rochelle at the start (20-0, 14th) and, above all, because she managed the approach to this match well. Internally, this week, the staff tried to play down the relocation, to the point of making it a non-event. “For my part, I take no account of the fact that we are there, Joël Rey explained to us Thursday morning. We played a big name last week. There we get another one. It will be in Anoeta, very good. We would be in Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle or Hasparren, it would be the same. I understand the aspect linked to the event, but the most important thing is the team we are going to face and how do we plan to go about it.”
The days or hours leading up to the meeting did not, moreover, provoke overwhelming enthusiasm. On the banks of Nive, this week, the extension of Sireli Maqala or the premiere of Manu Tuilagi were widely discussed. The trip to San Sebastian? Some announced that they would not go to Anoeta, out of superstition. Others yes, but the fact remains that on Friday evening, more than 500 tickets were available for resale on the club’s official platform, while at the start of the match, 7,000 seats (out of 39,500) had not found a buyer.
“Anoetarecounted Grégory Patat on Saturday evening, We didn’t talk about it too much during the week. I talked about the sixth day of the championship, not the past. It’s never good to look back. I asked the players to be focused on the present moment. This is something we haven’t done in past years. This time there was no special jersey, the finish was simple. We knew that the more we put our rugby in place, the more chance there was of having a positive result.”

Machenaud: “This stadium is one of the most beautiful”

We don’t know if the sky and white manager had imagined, in his wildest dreams, his team capable of dominating La Rochelle at this point, in the first period, even if he admitted, just to be nitpicky, to have regretted the too many mistakes made by his players afterwards. It was, if one had to be found, the only downside of a dream afternoon for Rowing, who gleaned their first offensive bonus of the season. “I am proud to have played in a venue like this, which represents the entire Basque Countryunderlined the technician at a press conference. We always want to play in stadiums like that, but what made the difference was that before the match, we focused on a Top 14 day.”
In this regard, we can note that on Saturday, Bayonne had, in its ranks, numerous internationals accustomed to large stadiums (Iturria, Machenaud, Habel-Küffner, Segonds, Tuilagi, Carreras…) and their presence, it seems, , permit to better understand the event. “I like playing in this kind of enclosure, recognized the experienced Maxime Machenaud (35 years old), author of a very good performance. These are special matches, they look like gala meetings, of a very high level. Besides, I find this stadium to be one of the most beautiful. It is neither too big nor too small and the city of San Sebastian is quite special, because it is festive.”
However, in a championship as tough as the Top 14, the sky and white did not want to stay on their clouds for long. “Today, the weather was good, there were people and we felt good on the pitchdescribed Machenaud. The preparation was good, we put what was needed on the pitch, but it’s rare that we’ve had two performances in a row since I’ve been here. This evening, I want us to enjoy with family and friends, because they are always pleasant moments, but from Monday, we will have to switch to Racing.” This is the law of the Top 14. Victories, however beautiful they may be, are only fleeting.