Montpellier and Garbajosa on the brink of the crisis

Five defeats, including two at home, an unflattering eleventh place before grappling with a thrilling schedule: Montpellier has one of its worst start to the season in ten years and the arrival at the helm of billionaire president Mohed Altrad.

And the MHR, who have played eight of the last nine finals, see their prospects for qualifying darken.

“After the weeks that we have just lived, a victory would have done us a lot of good, especially in morale. It affects us. It’s hard to project ourselves at the moment”, recognized the emblematic captain Fulgence Ouedraogo after the last home defeat in front of Bordeaux-Bègles (23-22).

Is the current sad situation the result of a rejection of the Garbajosa transplant? Since his induction in the summer of 2019, the sports manager has in any case not managed to impose his method, nor his vision of the game on a heterogeneous workforce, formed in particular of South African players and talents in the making, such as the French internationals. .

For now, the former international back of Stade Toulousain benefits from the unprecedented leniency of President Altrad.

Indulgence which Fabien Galthié, new boss of the Blues, Jake White, former world champion with the Springboks or Vern Cotter, the ex-mentor who had raised Clermont among the best clubs in Europe (2006 -2014).

However, the MHR boss was quick to dismiss Pierre-Philippe Lafond, forward coach, and replace him with Olivier Azam, close to the new rugby director Philippe Saint-André.

Glimmer of hope

But with cascading postponements, repeated injuries and duplications, Montpellier is also paying a heavy price for the vagaries of a start to the season marked by the health crisis and the impact of Covid-19. “It’s a special year, where we have to be in permanent adaptation,” Saint-André recently alerted.

After ten days, Montpellier deplores in fact already three late matches, postponed due to several positive cases of Covid in its workforce or in those of Lyon or Castres. However, for Saint-André, “the cancellation of these matches came at the wrong time because we were on a good dynamic”.

After a defeat at Toulon (25-21) “considered as a trigger”, Montpellier had effectively chained two improved victories at home in front of Agen and Brive. But the Héraultais were stopped in their dynamic by the postponement of three matches in four days.

“Rugby is above all a team sport and contact. For three weeks, we were prevented from doing collective and contact. We returned from Bayonne with six injured, there is no coincidence. Today, we protect the players against the Covid, which I understand very well. But how do we protect them to play a rugby match? “, annoys the physical trainer Laurent Arbo, the former winger at the hundred tries.

Four returning internationals

The handicap is all the more important as the team was also deprived of several executives with the injuries of Louis Picamoles, Jacques Du Plessis or Benoît Paillaugue.

Little glimmer of hope, Montpellier has just recovered four French internationals: center Arthur Vincent, winger Vincent Rattez, second row Paul Willemse and pillar Mohamed Haouas, all holders against Bordeaux-Bègles.

These returns will not be too much because Montpellier is entering a month of December that is cold in the back: trip to Clermont, which remains on five successes in six days, mission impossible in the European Cup against Leinster, quadruple continental champion, and with the Wasps, then travel to La Rochelle, leader of the Top 14, and the arrival of Toulouse.

Not the ideal time to get back on your feet and relieve Garbajosa.

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