The resumption against the Cantaliens promises to be fraught with challenges for the Ain team which must confirm its revival.
In the minds of Oyonnax, the memory of the first leg in Cantal finds a very particular resonance. It was on the pitch of the Jean-Alric stadium, on November 1, that the spiral that would drag the Ain club to the bottom of the rankings began. The defeat had been short (24-23) but the scenario, marked by seven cards (five yellow, two red), had highlighted a flagrant lack of control in the Oyonnaxian ranks, a fault into which four other teams would fall. After five consecutive losses, Oyonnax finally turned around in December, against Soyaux-Angoulême, then at Montauban. “During these two meetings, both in the state of mind and in the content we were as we want to be. We took the measure of what we are capable of doing, produced the game that suits us, even if there are still improvements to be made in certain sectors The group had fun on the ground.appreciates Fabien Cibray.
“We are beginning to see the light again”
By stringing together two victories, which had not happened to him since November 2023, Oyonnax regained confidence and collected nine precious points which allowed a rise in the ranking. “We are starting to see the light again, but to get out of the red zone we need to win against Aurillac. Two points separate us in the standings, a victory would allow us to move up a place,” retains the Aindinois manager by evoking the mission that awaits his group. “The double achieved at the end of the year placed us in a new dynamic. It is up to us to validate and maintain it, without trying to project ourselves towards the trip to Nice or the reception in Brive, but by focusing solely on on the reception at Aurillac which will be a return match with all that that implies. After the difficult period we went through, it is essential for us to successfully enter the return phase.
We suspect that this expectation will be shared by the Aurillacois who had completed the year 2024 by defeating Dax and who after their trip to Ain will successively host Mont-de-Marsan and Provence Rugby. They too aspire to get off on the right foot.
-If there is no miracle recipe to guarantee success, Fabien Cibray reveals what will be one of the instructions given to the group to fulfill the mission that awaits it: “Being us, producing our game, the one that allowed us to finish the first leg well.”
The only doubts that the Oyonnaxiens face are of a medical nature, linked to a wave of flu which affected a few players. Facing Aurillac, the Ain players will be on a mission and they will not repeat the guilty mistakes of the first leg by not letting their determination take precedence over rigor and control.
