Rugby The oyomen will start their season on Sunday against Montauban, a match already test for the rest of the season, both for the sports staff and for the reception of spectators.
“We have been waiting for this for a long time,” Bilel Taieb and Théo Millet confided on Wednesday during the pre-match press briefing. “We can’t wait to see what the group gives.” Even before the start of the first day, the players and the coach showed their ambition: the climb. However, they know that this goal will be more complicated than last year with the “homogenization” of the championship, to use the words of Joe El Abd. “There has been a good recruitment in a lot of teams,” said one of the players. We can especially think of Provence Rugby, Biarritz and Aurillac, three teams that the club will meet in September and October. Joe El Abd has been clear: the first mid-season goal will be to be in the Top 6 at the end of the first leg of the championship, synonymous with qualifying for the finals.
The young people of the training center are already giving satisfaction
These ambitions, Oyonnax rugby will have to fulfill them in a complicated context, in particular by the Covid-19 crisis. The squad has also changed compared to last season. “We have managed to keep our best players and integrate the youngsters from the training center. We are proud to be able to integrate them and their performance on the pitch. So it is positive! “, adds Joe El Abd. But the players want to hang on and show that the press, which does not see him as elite contenders, is wrong: “We had a good offseason and we are going to have to adapt to all the situations and we are keeping the same ambitions. We don’t give a damn about not being put forward by the press. We want to create a surprise. It’s an excellent thing not to be expected, “jointly recall the three members of the Aindinois club. In the current context, the players and the coach say they do not want to find an “excuse” and want to be ready for Sunday.
Montauban, an opponent within Oyo’s reach at home
The path to the Top 14 will therefore begin this weekend against the Tarn-et-Garonne team. And The players know it well: Montauban, who had a mixed season last year, will come to Oyo “without complex. We are not going to discover them on the day of the match we have worked on their strengths and their points This season, we are a block, maybe more than the past years and everyone is concerned by the project, “says Bilel Taieb. Théo Millet adds: “We are confident in our game and we want to play the same way everywhere and avoid foiling as we did last year”. All this will have to be put in place as soon as Montauban is received. In the last home receptions over the past 5 years, the Aindinois have never lost against this team at Mathon. A deal that can give confidence to start the championship calmly. In terms of staff, Oyonnax rugby will be deprived of Beauxis (injured for several months), Hamilton, Lassalle, Giresse. Rory Grice and Phoenix Battye, “who had little scares”, should return to the group soon.
At the moment, the team doesn’t want to set a block goal. Perhaps because of the uncertainty of Covid-19 but because it is also the mentality of the team. “We take the matches one by one”, could hear very regularly in the press conferences of last season. “We do not want to look at the schedule, explains Joe El Abd. Each team is strong! I take the example of Rouen . We can also have surprises like Colomiers last year “.
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