After two short defeats away, the Aixois returned to their meadow with the firm intention of returning to success against Valence-Romans.
For the men of the Reggiardo-Dupuy-Delmas-Ladauge quartet, we cannot say that life is beautiful on the outside! With only two points taken out of ten possible, the latter missed two clear opportunities, both in Colomiers and in Dax, to make an impression and above all to win their first victory of the season away from their bases. A lack of control at the end of the match proved fatal to them in both confrontations. So here they are back at home where, since the start of the season, they have always remained in control of the situation and therefore remain undefeated. Even if the last reception against Nice was not easy for the Provençal blacks. Today, still anchored in the top 6, the teammates of Arthur Coville (5th in the ranking) will have to put on the warm-up blue to get a convincing victory, complete the first act positively and thus spend Christmas warm. This is the priority objective of Provence Rugby before cutting two weeks. An objective tinged with a desire to release a clean and clear copy in the game. Certainly, there were the two clear and improved victories acquired against Mont-de-Marsan and Aurillac at Maurice-David but since then, we have not no longer perceived a control in Aix rugby.
Take care of automation
And, against a poorly ranked Drôme team, the Aixois will be forced to play hard to penetrate the opposing defense and thus open up boulevards in order to score tries.
This Aix team is clearly currently lacking confidence, control and precision in the last gesture. And, let’s be clear, she cannot find a certain balance that would allow her to perform better.
This evening, in front of her loyal audience and a still very well-filled stadium, she is obliged to launch the horses! “In Dax as in Colomiers, we still lacked control at the end of the match, underlines Aix general manager Mauricio Reggiardo, but it’s been like this since the start of the season. It was the same thing in Grenoble, Soyaux-Angoulême, and Nevers in particular. We are not far from winning in the money-time and for the moment, each time, the coin falls on the wrong side for us. Now, there is this last match of the year at home against a good Valencia team, who play good rugby, who will come to us without pressure and who we will have to respect if we want to put in a good performance. We had a very good week of training and we now have to reproduce that on the pitch during the match. There was a lot of desire and we must also bring this intensity, this desire into this last duel of the first phase in front of our audience. In this first leg, we are missing an away victory but we took seven bonus points. But, I repeat, let’s respect this Valence-Romans team to achieve the best possible match and finish on a positive note this year 2024.” Indeed, Provence Rugby does not have much choice. In order not to let the leading trio escape, the Aix group would be well advised to complete this first chapter of the season with a bang.
