After a cruel home defeat against Olympic Castres, the Catalans challenge Parisians without rhythm. Hope is allowed, in part …
To each their own problems. If the Stade Français has to deal with shortened preparation and a lack of competition, Usap also finds itself faced with major pitfalls. ” Are we more likely to make a hit compared to the context? asks Patrick Arlettaz. On paper, you might think so. But we are coming out of a very tough match against Castres which will go back six days while, for their part, they will have the advantage of freshness. And then, this meeting is stuck before our trip to Biarritz. I’m not saying we’ll go there to win, but we have to think about it already. Honestly, I would have preferred this match in Paris to be placed at another time. »
« Frustration to digest »
The programming of this poster does not seem to suit anyone. Six days after having cracked in front of the CO, the Sang et Or will have to find the mental and technical resources to compete with this adversary presumed stronger but distant by only four points: ” The Stade Français is in difficulty at the moment but, given its workforce, I do not believe that we will be fighting to the end. »
Faced with hosts deprived of competition for a month, for the most part, and therefore potentially short of pace, the Catalans can not leave defeated in advance. If their pack holds the tug-of-war in conquest – a sine qua non condition, the promoted has enough individual strengths to outsmart the Pink Soldiers. The manager poses the collective problematic of his family: ” We must not overlook the difficulty for a team like us, or like Biarritz, to string together such challenges. We lost to Castres despite a fairly decent match. The players came out chewed, there was frustration to digest, breakage … »
Weariness, the unfortunate absence of the daddy from the back lines De La Fuente, the rotation of the workforce due to the schedule and the opponent’s pedigree are all equations to be resolved. But to hope to maintain itself, Usap would be inspired to create the feat on the outside sooner or later. It could be in Paris. Or in Biarritz in a week. A certainty, in any case: a zero point on this double displacement would be a sacred thorn in the side for the future.
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