“David Gould reflects on Grenoble’s season and their fight for survival in the French championship”

Penultimate of the Southern conference of the French championship, the Centaurs will play their skin on the final day. A look back at this season with David Gould, Canadian coach from Grenoble.

For the Centaurs, there was a before and after this season. To start the year, Grenoble took rouste on rouste. First in Nice against the Dolphins (36-3) then in Toulouse against the Bears (40-2). As the 2023 financial year got off to a bad start, the Centaurs called David Gould for help. Present on the sidelines from 2017 to 2021, the Canadian coach had returned to live in Grenoble, his city of hearts, and that of his family. The club did not miss the opportunity to find its technician, recruited by an online platform six years ago. “I had never planned to cross the Atlantic. It’s a pretty crazy story, but I don’t regret it at all! smiles the one who also passed through Nice.

Progress over the year

After the return of its North American technician, Grenoble is moving forward again. Little by little, the Centaurs are getting closer to victory. During the 4^e day, they push the Catalan Grizzlys of Perpignan to their limits (26-28), before failing to overthrow Toulouse (14-16). “Even if we didn’t win, I felt that something clicked. Then we beat Aix and Nice, it did us a lot of good. This year, we saw that we could compete with most teams. All season, David Gould had to deal with a shortened squad: “We had 42 guys at the start. But with the injuries etc, we often found ourselves at 26, 27), it’s very complicated to develop your game in these conditions”.

The maintenance at the end?

Thanks to its two victories gleaned at the end of the season, Grenoble offers a slight lead over the red lantern, the Argonautes of Aix. Enough to avoid relegation? “Certainly, the pressure is above all on Aix, who absolutely must win. It will be a distance duel, everything will be decided on this last day. It’s an end-of-season scenario worthy of a movie! “. In the cave of the Catalan Grizzlys of Perpignan, clinging to their 3^e qualifying place for the play-offs, the match will necessarily be disputed. “It’s a very well-coached team. », salute David Gould. “The fact that we came so close to beating them in the first leg will give us motivation. In addition to the challenge of course…”