Pro D2 – Grenoble in strong lead against Brive

There was everything to tremble in the Isère ranks before this match. The arrival of the Corrèze dauphin, first of all, who it was legitimate to think would come and test himself. A shaky context, then, with around twenty injured including eight in the second and third line positions alone (Phillips, Lainault, Nansen, Madeira, Muarua, Martel, Berruyer, Hardwick) and uncertainties until the end since the joker's license Cameron Holt's medical was only validated a few hours before kick-off. “On top of all that, we didn’t do a very good training the day before the match” delivered center Romain Fusier, named captain for the first time in his career. What would this have been like under other conditions, then…

Indeed, under the eyes of the president of the LNR René Bouscatel who confided to us afterwards that he had attended “a first half worthy of the Top 14”the Isère residents have indeed blown up their runner-up. And this at the cost of another quarter of an hour of madness, which this time took place not at the end of the match but in the first half, during which the FCG played the most beautiful game that could be imagined.

Ployet applauded

A total spectacle, an anthological quarter of an hour, which saw the FCG raise all the balloons by hand from its own 22 meters, facing the Brivists reduced to chasing shadows… “In those moments, it’s hard to breathe because it’s running in all directions. But above all, we feel a crazy pleasure when we manage to make passes after contact, when there is always support, when we remain on the initiative. It's just more, that's what our coaches try to bring to us, to always be actors in what we put in place.” smiled Fusier. “We had the traffic and the necessary options, it’s true that it helped us, Patrick Pézery was satisfied. As a coach, when you see planned things come true, it's always satisfying. But a quarter of an hour later, you realize that things are happening that don't suit you. This is the daily life of a coach, of all coaches…” A reference, obviously, to this more complicated second half which saw the Isérois concede two tries and lose the offensive bonus that they held between their fingers. “The second half was less good but it was difficult to do as well as the first,” agreed the second row Thomas Ployet, always more impressive and came out to a deserved ovation. “We didn't manage to be consistent but that is perhaps also linked to the conditions and, above all, to the quality of the opponent. Even if the objective, in each match, is to hold four- twenty minutes…”

“We forget ourselves a little in the physical density but we appreciate this result at its fair value, Pézery finished. The last few weeks haven't been easy, we've had a tough time with injuries but the group is working hard. We have to appreciate this result at its true value and continue to hang on before going to Nice, who I can already tell you is a very complicated team to play. We won't be able to stay in Brive for long.” The lot of a leader and high standards, in short.