The Intense Rivalry Continues: Dauphinois vs Catalans in Top 14

It is an understatement to say that, for a few seasons, Isérois and Catalans have built a singular common history. René Girard would have spoken here of his theory of mimetic violence: when two entities share an indivisible object of desire, confrontation becomes inevitable. And all the more interminable when the desire turns out to be powerful on both sides, so much so that we don’t know in the end which garden the apple of discord comes from.

The most venerable supporters of both camps thus remember, for some, a trip from Usap to Grenoble in 2003, during the first clash between the two clubs in the professional era. A match concluded with an epic victory for the FCG (29-28) thanks to a drop from Ludovic Mercier at the last second, after which the Catalan supporters had the unpleasant surprise of seeing the bodywork of their degraded bus. Still, for five seasons, the rivalry between the two clubs has taken a much more dramatic turn.

In question, of course, this structural difficulty in accessing/maintaining in the elite. “Grenoble is a bit of a rival club, admitted Catalan scrum-half Tom Ecochard. We’ve met a lot over the last few seasons and we know that against them, it’s going to be difficult. Especially since they will play uninhibited, with the desire to play a better match compared to their final.” As if fate wanted there to be only one place in the Top 14 for these two clubs, condemned to eternally compete for it at random encounters ever closer to the epic, whose feats of arms tirelessly feed common legend…

“The people of Grenoble, the Shield…”

The most striking fact of this? It goes back, obviously, to this Pro D2 final at the end of the 2017-2018 season, which saw Usap massacre the FCG (38-13) by humiliating it in the physical challenge, especially in the sector of the closed scrum, in an Ernest-Wallon stadium which had been tinged with blood and gold that day. A trauma that the Grenoble residents, beaten twice beforehand in the same season by Perpignan (including a painful setback at the Stade des Alpes 17-27 on an interception of 100 meters from Jean-Bernard Pujol), had applied to erase from the following season in the Top 14. It must be said that the celebrations of the Catalans of the time, starting with the now famous song of Enzo Forletta on the Place du Castillet (“Grenoblois, the Shield, they will see it on TV…” ) had considerably served to motivate the Dauphinois at the time, in order to find the resources to bounce back before playing the first “access match” in history against Oyonnax.

This is the kind of memory in which, obviously, Antonin Berruyer and his teammates will want to draw on to surpass themselves this Saturday. And thus prove that the feat is possible. Because if they did beat Perpignan at the Stade des Alpes during their short-lived passage through the Top 14 in 2018-2019 (31-22, including 26 points at the foot of Gaëtan Germain), the Grenoble residents also know that they have, the following years, were gradually dominated on a regular basis in their showdown against the men of Patrick Arlettaz.

Indeed, after winning their first match of the Top 14 season in 2019 against Grenoble, the Catalans above all dictated their law twice during the 2021 edition. Even signing their last trip to the Stade des Alpes with a success much more resounding than indicated by the final score (20-28) since the Usapists were actually leading 28-6 in the 75th minute, Grenoble only saving the honor at the very end of the meeting thanks to their nuggets from then, Séguret and Capuozzo, gone from under other skies…

Usap as a legitimate favorite

This long preamble why, exactly? Simply to remind you that, if there is a rivalry, it is the Usap which has taken the lead, as proved by the maintenance won last year at this same stage of the competition against Mont-de -Marsan, as well as this fine season which saw her win ten games in the Top 14. A superiority that she will have to prove again on the pitch, and which the Grenoble residents now only dream of challenge. “To be completely honest, even if these stories of rivalry are very pleasing to journalists, we do not feel it more than that on a daily basis, explained the back of FCG Julien Farnoux, of which Usap was for eight seasons the first professional club. In Perpignan, there are enough local rivalries to invent others… It’s above all a question of context, I think. Even here, in Grenoble, I don’t feel any particular animosity for Usap. Afterwards, I admit that it is still a special week for me. I receive a lot of messages, I have a lot of requests… I try to prepare it like a normal match, in fact… I let myself be carried away a bit, because I don’t really want to control my emotions either. .”

A bias which is also that of the Catalans, who are eager to use the eruptive context of the Stade des Alpes, despite forecasted rainy weather. “Everyone is aware that it will be boiling but it is not to displease us, we will seek to feed on it, testified Catalan manager Patrick Arlettaz. We may be favorites because we are facing a Pro D2 team but we don’t pay attention to it: the context, we know it very well because in Grenoble, we played there not so long ago… We will simply have to take the cries of encouragement as if they were in our favour! And then, we also know that there will be a lot of Catalans in the stands, we know them…” The reference here is not insignificant, Arlettaz knowing very well that the fight had started behind the scenes long before kickoff. To cope with the Catalan tide announced at the opening of sales to the general public on Wednesday noon, the Alpine leaders had thus had the idea of ​​​​allowing their subscribers to recover up to 20 tickets per head of pipe at the presale. As a response to the Catalans’ takeover bid in 2018, many of whose supporters had traveled to Isère to recover places before the Pro D2 final. Here, how we meet again…