The Bordelais have managed to win their last four matches by managing to reverse the situation after the break three times.
The dynamic is positive. Indeed, in all competitions, the Union Bordeaux-Bègles has just achieved a four in a row for the second time and it presents itself in Castres with the hope of a pass of five still unprecedented this season. Above all, the current dynamic is to the credit of the strength of character of the Girondins who were trailing three times at the break during their last four successes. During this series, the only time they returned to the locker room ahead of the scoreboard, they were only leading 3-0. It was when they hosted Montpellier at Chaban-Delmas on November 30. Otherwise, Yannick Bru’s men were twenty-two points behind in Vannes, seven when they hosted Leicester and five last weekend in Belfast. The causes of these repeated delays are varied although wind and indiscipline were cited during Champions Cup matches.
Incredible feedback
The mastery of the Bordelais to maintain their calm and their game plan was especially praised, while showing great maturity to adjust the necessary cogs and inflict incredible scores in the second act, with only one try conceded, which more is after the siren, in three matches (30-0 in Vannes, 28-7 against Leicester, 26-0 in Belfast) as Arthur Retière pointed out after the last victory: “We manage to have a good second half like last week, to play the balls, to play the turnovers and the counter-attacks and that smiles on us every time. We have to move a little more and stop kick the ball, we don’t panic, because we know that a match lasts 80 minutes, but we need to have a better first half to be better at the break and stop being behind in the score. every time.”
The small adjustments in the locker room have so far worked wonders on three occasions, even if no one has also forgotten the chase on the Clermont lawn at the beginning of November during the last defeat of the UBB, with a delay of eleven points at the break, which had risen to nineteen points, in the 65th minute of play. The Girondins then had to settle for a defensive bonus after a cannonball finish (32-27). Faced with a Castres team renowned for the intensity of its home match starts, the UBB players are well aware that they must stop making things difficult for themselves, as the UBB winger says : “We have already won away, but we cannot afford to always chase the score at half-time. Otherwise, it is too complicated to come back in the second half. We have to be able to reverse this pressure because that for the moment it smiles on us until the day when we won’t be able to come back.”
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