After being a model of stability, ASM Clermont Auvergne has been breaking the rule for a few months. Virtually eliminated from the race for the final stages of the Top 14 and in difficulty in the quest for the top 8 (the eighth being qualified for the next edition of the Champions Cup), the Auvergne club has already changed coach during the season, announced a change of president and the departure of several executives.
Since the structuring of the championship in its current form in 2005, ASM has played in the final phase thirteen times. THE Jaunard are even the second club to have accumulated the most points in the standings, behind the Toulouse ogre. But this season, and for the second consecutive year, the Auvergne club should miss the big meeting. Saturday in Bayonne, the men of Christophe Urios, who arrived in January on the Clermont bench, can still save their season, keeping the hope of winning a ticket for the “big” European Cup next season.
Two turbulent transfer markets
In the meantime, the 2022-2023 season has turned into the second consecutive transition year after the departures, last summer, of executives Camille Lopez (Bayonne) and Morgan Parra (Stade français), before those announced during the championships of players like Arthur Iturria (Bayonne), Damian Penaud (Bordeaux-Bègles) and Judicaël Cancoriet (La Rochelle). The post-World Cup season will therefore look like something new. To carry out the restructuring of a club which intends to question itself at all levels, Jean-Claude Pats, personnel director at Michelin and who will continue to exercise this function, has been appointed to be the new president.
At 63, he will take the reins of ASM at 1is June to replace Jean-Michel Guillon, in office for three years at the head of a club long presented as innovative but whose immobility in recent years has caused him to lose ground on his competitors both in sporting and structural terms. Benoît Vaz (48), at the head of a fund management company and project manager at the club since January, should soon be appointed general manager. He is one of the strong men of the revival project alongside Pats. He had been asked, four months ago, by Guillon to carry out an audit with the aim of reorganizing and modernizing the various services of the club and developing the brand around its sporting and economic environment.
Succession as driving force
Director of sports development, Didier Retière is also involved alongside Christophe Urios who replaced Jono Gibbes in January, in the maneuver to reorganize the workforce. Urios, who will repatriate his staff to UBB, will rely as much on home training as on experienced recruits such as opener Benjamin Urdapilleta (Castres), the Argentinian third lines Marcos Kremer (French stadium) and New Zealander , Pita-Gus Sowakula (Chiefs), Australian hooker Folau Fainga’a (Western Force) or Montpellier pillar Mohamed Haouas.
Scrum-half Baptiste Jauneau, opener Gabin Michet, on loan at the end of the season to Nevers (Pro D2), or even third row Killian Tixeront represent the next generation. Now, the goal is to double or even triple all positions. Alongside future sporting ambitions to return to the national and European forefront by 2025, the new management will also have to focus on restoring the image of ASM, recently tarnished by the affairs surrounding the concussions suffered by Alexandre Lapandry and Sébastien Vahaamahina.
The two players, to which must be added the Canadian Jamie Cudmore, have spread through the media to challenge their medical support after having had to end their careers.
Bayonne – ASM Clermont, this Saturday (5 p.m.)
#Rugby #Top #Clermont #bounce #find #heights
