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It is not so simple. The trip to Montpellier had long been planned on the rowing side, “bigger budget, bigger payroll, bigger Pro D2 audience” as chairman Tayeb noted at the start of the season, making promotion to the Top 14 a guess. . objective.
Within…
It is not so simple. The trip to Montpellier had long been planned on the rowing side, “bigger budget, bigger payroll, bigger Pro D2 audience” as chairman Tayeb noted at the start of the season, making promotion to the Top 14 a guess. . objective.
In the Landes camp it is more like the end-of-year trip for a group of friends who, logically, should already have been on vacation for a long time. Because the Stade Montois has never left the first two places, because we had time to get used to the idea, we would almost forget that finding the Landes club in the final is an anomaly.
The revival of Mons.
In a matter of months, he went from fighting for relegation to chasing a title. This is no coincidence, because after being very scared, he knew how to react last summer. President Cazeaux has loosened the budget threads, validating the reinforcement of the workforce (with the decisive arrival of Stéphane Prosper) and the constitution of a larger workforce. The coaches themselves were hollow-nosed in attracting starter Du Plessis, center back Mensa or prop Alves in particular. Decisive alterations, especially since the Stade Montois has received dividends from its training policy with the emergence of its nuggets Coly and De Nardi (under 20 world champions), as well as the appearance of the Léo Banos phenomenon.
Add to this a favorable schedule at the start of the championship to regain confidence, an atmosphere described as exceptional, the desire not to relive the trauma of last season, and you have the recipe for success for Mons, which could end with the fifth title of the history. of the club, after twenty years of waiting. “A title is for life, it would mark the club. We really want that, loose coach Julien Tastet. The difference between Bayonne and us is that Bayonne wants to get into the Top 14 and we want to be champions of France. »
romantic epic on the one hand; cold accounting other’s ambition? Summarizing this Sunday’s clash in this way would be reductive. Because the ship from Bayonne did not sail in calm waters to dock in Montpellier. Not everything went as planned during the journey. Considering it useless, the sports management had little taste for the pressure exerted by the president at the start of the season. He saw a form of dissociation in defeat. Already tarnished by relegation, the friendship between Philippe Tayeb and manager Yannick Bru, over 25 years old, has never been the same.
Paddle on a mission
Between a difficult digestion and a consistent Pro D2, the Blue and Whites did not surf the championship, mainly alternating between second (10 times) and third place (16 times). Sometimes difficult to follow, they generally got the job done at home and made some brilliant appearances away from home (successful at Nevers and Montauban), before triumphing in the sprint finish.
“We are where we wanted to be,” sums up winger Rémi Baget. One step away from putting the club back in its place, in the Top 14, a year after the humiliation of the play-off lost against Biarritz. Beyond the numbers, there is also a history of men in rowing this season. “This group has set itself a mission, recalls Yannick Bru. I can tell you that we have thought about it every day for the last twelve months. The desire to respect the contract and the total commitment to a promise that we had made has always been there. »
It remains to say goodbye to these Montois who won both matches in the regular phase (14-33 and 15-13), which made Bru and Tayeb say, at least in agreement on this point, that rowing will be “the outsider” Sunday. in the end. A status that the Landes coach preferred to assume, to better relax him.
“They are right, of course we are the favourites, let loose Patrick Milhet. We finished first and had a chance to beat them twice, so we’ll assume we’re favourites. The Mons guru has chosen to build the confidence of his players who, for the most part, will discover the unique atmosphere of a final, when Aviron is used for cutthroat matches. This experience, together with the presence of personalities capable of revolutionizing this type of meeting, speaks slightly in favor of the Basques.