Assuming that both teams will have no interest in dispossession, victory should logically go to the one who manages to hold the ball most effectively.
If they present team profiles that are polar opposites of each other, the Grenoble and Montpellier staffs will agree on at least one point: the importance of keeping the ball more than your opponent. For what ? Firstly because, from the point of view of the Héraultais – and even if the playing identity of this team remains a mystery to all observers – benefiting from possession will allow them to make the best use of their best asset: their power… Because between Chalureau, Nouchi, Serfontein and other Lam, the MHR obviously has in all its lines individuals capable of weighing on the Isère defense, to the point of inflicting on it a challenge of an intensity that it does not has never experienced this season, all the more difficult to overcome during a 34th weekend of competition… This is why, in addition to relying on their business of the closed scrum and the balls carried commanded by the experienced Nicolas Van Rensburg, the Montpellier residents and their Reinach-Carbonel hinge should not complicate the task more than that, and multiply the sequences of one-pass play likely to explode the Grenoble lock. Exactly as Usap achieved it last season at the Stade des Alpes, in the same context, around its Posolo Tuilagi assault tank…
For Grenoble, the open sea
The corollary? The fact is that, for their part, the Isérois will have no other choice than to try to hold the ball as much as possible, precisely to avoid exposing themselves to long grueling defensive sequences. This is why, in the areas of conquest, the Isérois will have every interest in getting the balls out as quickly as possible, through rapid tailgating or deviations in touch, in order to make the ball move as much as possible across the entire width, and offer maximum solutions to Sam Davies. With an additional risk, linked to a relative lack of power in the middle of the field (amplified by the injury absence of Romain Trouilloud): the risk of losing balls in contact… A reality that the Isérois have taken right in the teeth against Vannes, where they committed no less than 13 forwards in the face of the harsh Breton impacts. In fact, if the DNA of the Isère game lies in their ability to play after contact, Blanc-Mappaz’s teammates will have to be much more careful on Sunday when attempting “50-50” passes, even if it means ensuring by going through the ground… Where they will have to be particularly reactive, particularly in the exterior corridors, in the face of the threats to scratching posed by Bécognée, Karkadze, Serfontein and other Verhaeghe. Difficult ? Certainly. The fact remains that if they manage to make the extra pass and play the right areas against a defense seen as very wide but not always aggressive, the Isérois could have the means to make the Héraultais doubt. Knowing that, if they manage to stay glued to the score until money time, the support of the Stade des Alpes and the additional pressure that will weigh on the shoulders of the Montpellier residents could well play their part…
