ANALYSIS. Clermont – Castres: Asleep at the foot of the volcano, we explain the reasons for the disappointment of the Tarnais

Head upside down and eyes to cry. This is all that Castres experienced yesterday in Clermont, totally overwhelmed. At the Marcel-Michelin, the “blue and white” were only able to add ten points to their own score. Too thin to hope to beat a volcanic ASM which made short work of its opponent of the day (10-54).

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One bite and more. She barely had time to swallow, when the CO spent his time clearing his throat. The Olympians only saw yellow, only raising their heads above water on rare occasions. Difficult at that. How far away the Clermont goal seemed, and the path to get there was strewn with pitfalls. Only Will Collier plunged into a mouse hole to revive his team a little before the break (10-23, 37).

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The hope of a test to remobilize the troops. No. Second as well as first act were similar. In summary? 40 minutes of suffering. Especially since the final score could have been heavier without the few sins of gluttony from Clermont, Moala for example forgetting Tauzin on the outside (43), then Newsome doing the same, at the end of the line, with Jauneau (59) .
In addition to a first quality defensive sequence on its five meters (2), Castres fell back, suffered collisions, and lost the forward fight. The Tarn alignment was mishandled as well as clumsy. And proved incapable of countering the balls carried by the Jaunards, who scored half of their eight tries in this phase of play (15, 25, 51, 71).

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Not a ball to get your teeth into

Nothing was going well with the Castres. The discipline needle pointed in the red as soon as they returned from the locker room (15 penalties over the entire game), and the start of the second half completely took the CO out of a game in which it had, in fact, never returned. Without a scrum, without a touch, the “blue and white” were deprived of the ball. If the question about their offensive play yesterday revolved around number 10 Vilimoni Botitu, the latter frankly had nothing to do as his team did not touch a ball, tirelessly wiping away the yellow waves.

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The ASM certainly produced a top-notch performance against a fragile CO, but the Olympians also held out the stick. The three yellow cards did not help matters (47, 69, 71), as did the balls lost in the 22 meters during the first half hour. Fernandez's forward (12) – not helped by Hulleu's pass -, that of Goodhue, after a lost touch then recovered (17), and the missed gesture of Palis offering a throw from 10 meters for Clermont, were all the spark for a try.

Castres caught fire yesterday. Not the slightest light shone in Castres' eyes at the final whistle. Looks as dark as this performance.