MY LIFE IN RUGBY
Wales, Cardiff Blues and Bedford Blues winger Chris Czekaj
This was supposed to be derby weekend in France’s Top 14. The usual celebrations were already out of the window because of the current health situation, but the league’s marketing people were doing their best to drum up at least a sense of local rival intensity, even if the games themselves were to be played behind closed doors.
Then Covid-19 put paid to their best-laid ‘e-ticket’ plans for social media-led, empty stadium supporter involvement, with four matches – Montpellier v Toulon, Brive v Clermont, Agen v Bordeaux and Racing 92 v Stade Francais – all called off.
Space in the calendar is hard to come by at this stage in the campaign, especially with four French teams – La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Montpellier – still involved in European competitions. It should be possible to play two matches, Brive-Clermont and Racing-Stade Francais, in the European semi-final weekend, but space still has to be found for Montpellier and Bordeaux’s matches, with no certainty when they can take place.
For Bordeaux, positive Covid-19 tests among their front row players could hardly have come at a worse time. In less than a fortnight, they are set to face Toulouse in the allFrench Champions Cup semi-final.
Those cases had a knock-on effect, prompting league officials to call off Racing 92 v Stade Francais as a precaution. The affected Bordeaux players had taken part in last weekend’s European victory over Racing 92 at Chaban Delmas. As contact cases, the 23 Racing players involved in that match have had to self-isolate for this past week. Additional PCR testing took place yesterday, and a second round of tests will be due tomorrow. If both are negative, players can return to training for the trip to Toulouse next weekend.
It has long been accepted as a formality, but Agen were officially relegated late on Friday without even making it onto the pitch, as 13thplaced Pau picked up the point they needed against 12th-placed Bayonne to move over the mathematical event horizon.
In fact, they picked up four points in a 43-33 win – their first at home since December – to move within three of their opponents in the table.
It was a crazy, indisciplined game. Referee Romain Poite dished out four yellow cards and a red, blew for 33 penalties, and awarded a penalty try. Flanker Giovanni Habel Kuffner was probably lucky just to be sinbinned for ploughing into a ruck ten minutes into the second half. A minute after he returned, he crashed over to take the hosts back into the lead that they held onto and increased in the closing stages of the game.
The timing of Pau’s win was just about perfect, with two new arrivals due in the coming weeks. New head coach Sébastien Piqueronies is due at the end of April, to guide his new charges in the closing stages of their survival mission, while Springboks fly-half Elton Jantjies has signed a short-term medical joker contract until the end of the season, a maximum of six games from now, as cover for the injured Antoine Hastoy and Mike Harris. In recent matches, including the one on Friday, they relied on 19-year-old Thibault Debaes, the last specialist 10 on their books.
Jantjies’ arrival is unusually late – in any normal season it would not have taken place. But the league’s new committee, headed by new president Rene Bouscatel, decided to extend the period for new short-term contracts until the end of April.
Pau had come close to signing him for the whole of this season, but the planned move was ruled out by the South African union.
As well as Jantjies’ switch from Lions to Pau, the move has allowed Gael Fickou to move out of Paris early. He is expected to formalise an early move to Racing 92 this week on a short-term deal preceding his full contract, where he will bolster a backline weakened by a series of injuries.
One club that has decided not to take advantage of the relaxed rules is Toulouse, who have notably stuck with their tried and increasingly trusted method of integrating young players into the senior squad.
Never was that more evident than in the squad for yesterday’s derby trip to Castres. Ugo Mola named a much-changed side, with Matthis Lebel starting at full-back and Dimitri Delibes – enjoying the moment after his Champions Cup outing in Munster – getting his second Top 14 start in his preferred centre position, from where he scored the opening try of the game.
It would be wrong to assume the wholesale changes in the Toulouse squad were a studied insult towards their opponents. After three Six Nations matches and two Champions Cup outings in five weeks, the French contingent were due a wellearned break. And, with Toulouse competing on two fronts, Mola is looking at the long game.
The stand-in players’ comfort on the ball and understanding of the Toulouse style – because it’s what they train for week-in, week-out – was obvious as there was no switch from the Toulouse method. And Delibes, who scored two tries in his first Top 14 start against Lyon in February, crossed for the opening try. And Lebel finished a length-ofthe-field effort late in the game that had jeu de mains, jeu de toulousains coursing through its veins. But Castres held on, despite being reduced to 13 in the closing ten minutes, to win 26-24 and move within a point of play-off chasing Lyon and Toulon.
La Rochelle’s run to their ultimate Champions Cup challenge against Leinster on May 2, started with a defence of their fortress against Lyon – the one non-derby of the weekend – in last night’s late game.
Ronan O Gara’s side have an impressive home record. Heading into this weekend they have won 55 and drawn three of their last 63 home matches in all competitions.
“Agen were officially relegated on Friday without even making it onto the pitch”