the essential
For more than an hour, the president and manager of the SUA chose our columns to carry out Sporting's mid-season review. First part of this series to be found in our next editions: the purely sporting aspect.
For more than an hour, the president and the manager of Sporting returned, exclusively in our columns, to the first part of the season carried out by the Agenais. On the menu: the purely sporting aspect and the defeat at Brive, the objectives to come for the second part of the season, the difficulties on the Armandie pitch, or even the Agen transfer window. This evening, it's time to return from the defeat in Brive and take stock of the mid-season.
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What sporting assessment do you make after this first block?
S. C. : Mixed. In a particular context where it is the renewal of a team and a project, there are two blocks out of three that go well. Unfortunately, we leave a lot of points on the way from the first block, whether Provence or Nice. On this second block, we lost by one point at Soyaux-Angoulême, where we had done the job to bring back more points than the defensive bonus, but also Montauban.
It has often been said that the SUA is poorly paid. Do you share this opinion?
J.-F. F. : I believe that with one or two different shifts, we would be in a more favorable position, which could have put us under less pressure. But what is worth noting is this state of mind, this emergence of new players who take the project head on, this desire to play… Sometimes we expose ourselves. Offering games in November or December is not easy. But we also know the DNA and philosophy of the club.
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We imagine a lot of disappointment for Montauban…
S. C. : With Nice, these are two inexcusable poor performances. We know what we want to do in our den. We are chasing these results in this first part of the season.
The third block was in line with the objectives set…
S. C. : Yes. Getting around Béziers and Brive is never easy, but we will end up with the glass half full. This team is gaining maturity. Our project is training, like this third line trained at the club and with an average age of 21. The project to promote training is in full swing. It’s a real satisfaction. There is also the behavior of our elders.
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Is this desire to play a good thing?
J.-F. F. : Our success will come through the game. In sport in general, it is by scoring more points that you win. You just need the men to do it. The Agenaise game is very good, but we are not going to live in the past. It will be more of a Sébastien Calvet-style game. There are things that are falling into place. You need confidence. But Brive is a significant match. We may have lacked a little power. When you play teams with an ultra-powerful pack, you have to move them. When you produce in incessant rain, you expose yourself, and it's even harder when the opposing team takes the score. This is perhaps our strength and our weakness with a team that will overplay. But I'm proud of the state of mind. I don't know what we'll do this season, but it will help us.
What did you say to the players before going on vacation?
S. C. : We congratulated them for their state of mind. We have a thought for those who have very little playing time and are stuck with training. We have a team that needs to mature but shows us, again on Thursday for sixty minutes, that we have potential and that we need to express it better in this second half of the season.
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We can imagine regrets after this setback in Brive to end the year…
J.-F. F. : Brive wanted to spend the holidays warm. We had to stand up together, and that allowed us to benchmark ourselves. We're not very far. We were a little lacking in certain areas. And then, I am not going to overwhelm the facts of the game, but over two or three matches… We are not going to position ourselves as victims, but we are not well refereed at the start of the season. On two or three occasions, a few decisions changed matches.
S. C. : We didn't win the game, but we wanted to benchmark ourselves. The players saw clearly that in the 62nd minute, it was 22-18. At 19-15, we almost lost a ball in the in-goal. These are facts that could have turned the match around. Brive's coaching paid off, ours did not have a positive impact. If we have all our strength, we are not far away. We lost the match, but we still gained confidence. We must remain mobilized to prepare for the two receptions in early 2025.
To conclude on the athlete, the SUA is not really far…
J.-F. F. : It wouldn't have been the same if we had won two more games. Against Nice and Montauban, it's our fault. In this championship, with seven or eight more points, you are in the six. There are both regrets and frustration. This is also why we don’t give up and we go to work. Thursday, we would have deserved a bonus point. I am proud of the work done and the performances performed. I am convinced that we will have a good second half of the season, even if we would have liked to be a little higher in the standings.
