With a home win against Stade Français (46-26) and a defensive bonus point from Lyon (28-26), Union Bordeaux-Bègles is on target. But it has already dropped four points on the road over the first two days and is not yet operating at full speed. Not enough to worry the Girondins staff. “I haven’t seen many successful matches in this Top 14 yet,” emphasizes Christophe Laussucq, the coach in charge of the Girondins defense. “I don’t think there are many teams that are ready at the start of the season. We are like the others. We have room for improvement.”
For their return to Chaban-Delmas against Racing 92 this Saturday (9:05 p.m.), the Bordeaux team will have to step up their game. “We are aware that we were deficient in too many areas to be able to win in Lyon,” admits Christophe Laussqucq. “We could have won, there was a poorly managed kick-off 15 seconds from the end… But if we had been more efficient in many areas before, we might have protected ourselves from this kind of disappointment.”
Take care of the starts and the defense
Against Racing 92, UBB will have to improve its half-time starts, which it showed to be too shaky last weekend at the Matmut Stadium in Gerland. “These are easy points to correct, it’s more of a mental issue,” says second row Cyril Cazeaux. While its attack already seems to have found its marks (72 points scored in two matches, 9 tries), the Girondin club must focus on tightening its ranks in defense (54 points conceded, 7 tries). “We conceded tries, we lost a lot of balls,” notes Christophe Laussucq. “In Lyon, we suffered on our line defense. We let them play a lot by moving forward. It’s not the organization that’s at fault but the commitment we put into the combat phases.”
With nine changes in its XV and all its French internationals back on the match sheet, UBB will seek to revive itself against the Racingmen and to raise the cursor, before traveling to Toulouse (on September 29).
