Thomas Siniecki, Media365: published on Friday November 8, 2024 at 10:51 a.m.
We will already have to get out of the clutches of the extremely competitive Pro D2 for the ASBH and its major project.
Béziers remains in the right place at the start of the season, seventh, seven points from the red zone but above all five lengths from the lead in Pro D2 as it hosts Dax on Friday for the tenth day. Still a good time, therefore, for legend Andrew Mehrtens to announce his takeover of the club where he played in 2010-2011 – before becoming coach the following two seasons. For our colleagues at Rugbyrama.fr, he details the first legitimate and above all expected ambitions: “We want this club to return to the elite. It's no secret. A whole people just wants to reach the Top 14 and In this light. It's difficult, we know full well that we will have tough times. The Pro D2 championship is a marathon, we have to make sure to last accordingly. Béziers has an incredible history, it deserves to be. exposed at the highest level to make this institution shine, and I know what I'm talking about having played there for a few seasons.”
“If the team goes up, it will have to be maintained”
The opener finalist of the 1995 World Cup with the All Blacks, former teammate of the late Jonah Lomu, does not rule out the possibility of a good surprise from this 2024-2025 financial year: “Who knows, this team in place can give us another exceptional season.” At the end of last season, ASBH joined the play-offs but lost in the semi-finals to Vannes, future promotion (27-21), after dominating Brive (33-31).
At the origin of this takeover project, backed by his South African friend Bob Skinstad (also a former player, 2007 world champion) as well as Eddie Jordan usually linked to F1 and who will provide business advice, Andrew Mehrtens – who was born in South Africa – does not want to revolutionize everything: “We are not going to fill the team with foreign players. We absolutely must rely on the training center. The project must allow us to discover the region and the club in other spheres (…) We can claim to do something greater, but the road is long and humility must guide us.” The former Racing opener (Pro D2 champion in 2008 and 2009), aged 51, does not want to upset everything since the trajectory is already very satisfactory, in his own words. The idea is quite simply to “do the best we can”: “We didn't buy a club to one day go to the Top 14 like that. If the team goes up, we will have to be able to maintain it. But we do. is far away.”
