The SU Agen coach, defeated on Thursday evening in Soyaux-Angoulême (16-12), explains the reasons for his team’s failure. They are very simple …
From Regional Reserve 2 to Pro D2, there is only one truth: without responding in combat and providing the necessary commitment, it is impossible to win in rugby. Agen, in full euphoria, experienced it on Thursday evening at Chanzy.
After five successes in a row, won precisely on an infallible commitment and on an intensity at all times, SUA has gone downhill. Without competition. “You can’t win all the games. But this, we didn’t do anything to win it. Especially in the engagement, we lost all our duels. Conquests, collisions, footwork, ruck … We lost all wars. Observation by Bernard Goutta is relentless but right.
Was his team physically and / or mentally dull at the end of this block? The Catalan does not think so. Instead, he thinks “that at 6-0, after a scrum won, you told yourself it would be easy”. But when it comes to a promoter fighting for retention, nothing is easy.
Goutta: “We didn’t deserve to win”
Despite this lack of commitment, his players could have made the heist at the end of the game, in 15 against 14, with different possibilities of tries. But for lack of precision in the last gesture, the victory flew by. “Anyway, we didn’t deserve it,” says the manager, already delighted to leave with a bonus point given the copy returned by his group.
A performance that bothers him, “compared to what I like: a team that struggles, that doesn’t give up”. Is Agena too easy after a controlled start? Decidedly. “He will give us a lesson in humility. We were on our little cloud. But this match shows us that without commitment we are a team like any other in this league. Without his defense and realism that worked wonders in October, the SUA is at everyone’s mercy.
“I’ll annoy the players before Oyonnax”
“We showed the other teams how to beat Agen, continues Bernard Goutta. Now, we will have to be strong, and this, from the reception of Oyonnax (November 18th). Against the leader, this release will be forbidden under penalty of a great, very great disappointment for Armandie.
But the first third line smiles inwardly. “We will cut, we will think of something else and we will come back fresh to work well. We still have a lot to work on, this match proves it. Everyone will return to Earth. This match, I will obviously use it. As leverage to annoy players before Oyonnax arrives. “
If the manager has not “sanctioned” his players by shortening their holiday week compared to other blocking performances, he expects them to take turns for the resumption next Friday. He didn’t like this counter-performance. If in front of the journalists Bernard Goutta gave a measured speech, internally, with the approach of the shock towards the leader, the tones are likely to rise to find a SUA full of aggression.
