Rugby (Pro D2). The USM changes almost everything for its trip to Agen

We don't change… a formula that has proven itself since the start of the season, namely changing the group, without having to lose performance. Before a week of rest, it is a profoundly modified Sapiacian team which will present itself in Armandie, compared to the one which painfully beat Nice, with only four players who are returned to the starting fifteen. A team in which we are seeing quite a few comebacks. Not that of Segundo Tuculet at the back (probably reserved for Brive) since it is Baptiste Mouchous who is established. In front of him, we will find classic on the wings, with Stéphane Ahmed, and Josua Vici, while Simon Renda will be associated for the first time this season in the center with J.-T. Jackson, who played the first four games of the season before disappearing from the game sheets following a concussion protocol. Classic rotation at the hinge, and this time it is Jérôme Bosviel who will be associated with Joe Powell in the scrum. Many changes also in the front eight, with the third sheet of the season (but also the third start) of Corentin Coularis, in the third center line. He will be associated with Fred Quercy, and Noa Kanika, also back in the group. As for the second line, it is Victor Moreaux who will be associated with Frank Bradshaw, who we had not seen since the victorious trip to Valence-Romans. As for the first row, first start for hooker Jérémie Maurouard since his return from injury, and he will be associated with Luka Azariashvili, and Lucas Seyrolle. We will finally notice that we are returning to a classic six forwards, and two backs on the substitutes' bench, with the highly anticipated returns of the brilliant third row Kylian Ringuet, and the pillar Tietie Tuimauga. Finally, let us point out in terms of absences those of Simeon Soenen, return to the selection with Belgium, and of the Argentinian pillar Facundo Pomponnio, who has just been operated on for appendicitis.

Franck Pourteau on the bench

On the Agenais side, we will notice the absence of captain Arnaud Duputs, victim of a broken left wrist at Soyaux-Angoulême, and which is filled by the return of young Valentin Gayraud, in great form this season. It is Julien Lebian who takes the captain's armband. Hans Lombard-Buret and Lasha Macarashvili, out of the squad last weekend, start on the front row. Behind, tenure of Loris Tolot, returning from injury, in place of the revelation Lucas Martins, retained in the selection, and the young Romain Darchen at the back, to the detriment of Franck Pourteau, who will start on the bench; Darchen being a more playful profile. Finally, it is the Englishman Billy Searle who should this time be responsible for the points.
La. L. (with L. D.)